MARIA: Between Angels & Devils
by Role-Player 2018
Summary: 55 years ago, Maria was killed in accident by the GUN soldiers that were only trying to destroy Shadow. She did die there, but a new chance gave Maria the body of a Hedgehog and the abilities to use Chaos Energy just like Shadow. This is the tale between an Angel and a Devil... and their love for each other. (Archie characters exist; Game events are canon [w/ exceptions] ShadxMari)
1. The Angel's Prologue

_Oh my fucking internet..._

 _Anyways, here's a kind of a story you'll never see it coming! And it's from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise._

 ** _NOTE 1: All characters from the Sonic franchise, including Maria Robotnik's hedgehog version, belong to SEGA and her creator respectively. Kudos to the guy who had the idea to make a Hedgehog Maria!_**

 ** _NOTE 2: This is an AU Mobius, where the games are canon, but the Archie characters joined in on their endeavors. Some Cyberpunk & Steampunk elements are applied, and I will try my best to make sure that the holes in game events like Adventure, Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog are filled._**

 _Now with that outta the way... LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!_

 _Additional Note: This story is inspired by the unfinished "The Tale of Maria Robotnik the Hedgehog" fanfic, written by Teen Hero._

* * *

 **PROLOGUE**

 _ARK. 21st of January_  
 _Secret Cryosleep room_

". . ."

Silence.

That's all that lingered in what remains of the deserted ARK, the abandoned space station of scientist **Dr. Gerald Robotnik**.

". . ."

But in a certain room, the ARK didn't really seem deserted at all.

In fact, to put it bluntly, this certain someone should've died **55 years ago**.

". . ."

[ACTIVATING REBIRTH PROGRAM #2584. CODENAME: **MARIA** ]

And sure enough, inside a Cryostasis capsule, laid the new body for the one innocent thought dead in the ARK: **Maria Robotnik**. And her body was of a young hedgehog girl, probably of 18 years old. Maria's new body had a bright-yellow fur, with the hair spikes forming a chestnut-like hair. She was practically naked inside there, but then again, so is every other Mobian ever.

The capsule then started to warm up, eventually, the ice turning into water. Then, the water started to dry up in the capsule as the girl's new body rested its feet on the floor after all of the water dried up. Once everything was done with, the hedgehog girl slowly opened her eyes as she tried to process the current location she was in.

". . ." She kept herself silent, just looking around for a moment, still processing the current situation before her for a moment. Then, the capsule pod opened, with Maria noticing it as she only exited the pod and held her head a bit, feeling a headache.

"...Where..." she started speaking "...Where am I...?"

She seemed to walk around the current room she was in, being unfamiliar with it for the moment, as if she didn't remember being here before. She walked around aimlessly for a moment before then bumping into a compartment of sorts; there, a set of clothes laid down for her to see, which were a cerulean blue and white dress; a set of white gloves with blue wrist ring bracelets; white & blue boots, and finally, a set of headphones matching the colors of her dress up. Once she saw those clothes, she looked down to her own body and noticed she was bare nude. Blushing heavily and becoming embarrassed, the girl quickly picked up the clothing set on the compartment and wore it around her; to her surprise, the clothes fit perfectly with her body. "...I... quite like this..." she thought, smiling a bit.

Now, there was the other issue, where was she and how was she going to get out? Before exiting the room however, she explored the room to find out anything that could jog her memory, and once she saw her capsule and the letters under it, a bit of her memory returned.

"...Ma...ri...a..." she said "...Maria... is that... my name?"

She tried looking for whatever else she could find to jog her memory and she found some papers, after reading some of them, her memory managed to retrieve itself of some things, albeit with slight headaches around.

She discovered her name was **Maria Robotnik** , and those 55 years ago, she was diagnosed with a rare disease named NIDS, which would kill her once she reached teenagehood. If it was 55 years ago, it was safe to assume she died, then, but how did she get back was the mystery, and how did she get into the body of a hedgehog is also another mystery, however, she also saw a name which her mind was really having a hard time to remember, and the name was important.

"...Shadow...?"

At the mere mention, her head got another headache again, and some flashes started appearing on her vision, they weren't very clear, but she could see a black silhouette in these visions, and it didn't help the fact trying harder to remember got her with even more headache. She decided to leave it be for now, and start to exit the room through the doorway. However, it seemed the doorway was locked from the outside, so she was basically trapped.

"Great... Now what do I do...?"

Then, her headphones started to come up with a static noise as she held them a bit, then, a voice came clear to her ears: "Hello, Maria! If you're hearing this, then this must mean the rebirth program has worked! Unfortunately, I won't be able to see you when that time comes."

The voice sounded so familiar to her... however, she didn't remember it for now.

"Now, you may be confused a lot by what's going on, and... you probably do not remember a lot of what happened while you were in that stasis, but I'm here to refresh you mind on... **some** of those events. Maybe you've probably searched around the room and found the diagnostic papers of your NIDS, but if you didn't, let me enlighten you: NIDS means " **N** euro- **I** mmuno **D** eficiency **S** yndrome", a rare, incurable and fatal disease you developed when you were still a human. As a scientist, I've dedicated myself to find a way to cure this disease of yours, and so I came up with an idea, named **Project SHADOW**."

That name again...

"Before I continue any further, it seems I forgot to tell you who I am." The voice clears its throat. "I am, or rather, was, your grandfather, **Dr. Gerald Robotnik**." So that's why the name seemed familiar, he was a parent of hers. "...and I created Project SHADOW so that I could probably find a way on how to make you have immortality to be able to keep living on; however, while researching the papers, I have figured out that the problem wasn't on the cure, it was your body. I had concluded that a Human body was too weak to endure NIDS and there was no capable cure for you. But thanks to Shadow, I thought up a way to save you."

"...I merely needed to **change your body**."

 _"Is that why...?"_ she thought, now making the connection. "However, the process would be very long, and by the time I came up with it, the military already arrived to seize Shadow for themselves... and while they killed and captured every scientist that was working with me on this, they accidentally also killed you..."

Maria gasped, she thought the NIDS was what killed her, but instead, she now knew that she was the victim of an indirect homicide. "Because of that, they allowed me to have some private time to mourn your loss, but then, I remembered about wanting to change your body, so I've decided to do just that."

As Gerald was speaking, Maria started exploring around the small room that kept her in for 55 years, finding many other things around the room, including a small compartment. "With the same methods that I've used to create Shadow's body, I've created a female Hedgehog body for you, Maria. Only in your case, I have not used that vile Black Doom's blood in order to give you immortality. I've used... something else, that was in my study for some time. I cannot tell you what it is now, as I want you to find out yourself once you get comfortable in the new world you're going to."

Once she opened the compartment and picked up what was inside, it was revealed to be a **Chaos Emerald**. "I've left some things for your utility in that small room, including your clothes and a Fake Chaos Emerald I've created for you to use your new Chaos Energy Powers. Yes, you can use them just like how Shadow does it, only you'll have a bit more strain than him."

 _"I... remember a bit... about these Emeralds."_ Maria thought. _"So this Gerald then created this Fake Emerald... to help me control my Chaos Energy...?"_

"Like Shadow, you're able to use Chaos Energy in various ways, although your abilities will be very different from Shadow's. However, one ability you two share in common is the **Chaos Control**. The Chaos Control allows you to manipulate both Time and Space so that you can either teleport to anywhere you remember in your vision, and also to stop time altogether."

Maria was a bit weirded out by all that, knowing that she could stop time and also teleport all over the place, but given how her energy strain was a bit high, she could take that as saying that it was controlled for the time being and she wouldn't be too powerful.

"Now then. I left the picture of both your room and a city for you to practice your Chaos Control if you want to. Firstly, try to teleport to your room by seeing its image from the picture, then, once you have it in your head, simply pull it out from it and shout 'Chaos Control!' to be able to use it." Maria guessed it's why she was locked into the room. Nevertheless, she picked up the pictures and looked at the one with her room in it. Once she pictured enough, she followed Gerald's instructions.

" **Chaos... Control!** " Once done so, she saw herself getting teleported into her room with no problems, albeit she lost a bit of her balance for a moment. Once she looked around, memories of the room started coming back to her, however, they were weak enough so that she wouldn't get a strong headache. "I see... so this is the room I lived in..."

"I'm sure you've probably managed to teleport to your room by now." Gerald's voice continued on her headphones. "You are still probably having issues however, but as I always say, practice is key, so keep practicing and you'll be able to even teleport short distances **without** the need of a Chaos Emerald!"

"Now then, you can use the other picture, which shows Station Square, to travel towards Mobius. You can stay in the ARK for a bit if you want, but you'll never have the experience of really and finally living if you don't go down to Mobius. Now then, I'm afraid I must depart, but I want you to remember this from me, Maria..." At that point, she paid attention to the headphones.

"... **Be strong**. This world may have thorns where you can hurt yourself, but if you manage to be strong enough, **no one and nothing will ever be able to stop you from achieving your dreams.** "

"...My dreams..." She said out loud. Then, Gerald went to finish the message: "I must head out now. I hope you can have a better life in this new future you'll be living from now on. Farewell, Maria." The message then ends, with Maria then looking at the door of her own room as she opened it and exited.

Once she did, she found herself on one of the corridors of the ARK and saw the Blue Planet below her. She was absolutely marveled by it, Mobius was a really impressive Planet for her, at least.

"...So... that's where I'm going to...?"

She looked back at her room and the things inside there. She might not remember a lot, but she at least remembers now that this was her room and these were her things, and she wouldn't want to just leave them here in the ARK to rot up and be forgotten. She looked around the ARK and found a casing she could use to bring the things she needed with her. She returned to her room and put down everything that was there into the case as she then picked it up with ease, however, she noticed something weird with that.

"...This case is filled with my things now, so it should be heavy... right?" She repeatedly lifted the Case up and down with one hand, but she was doing it with such an ease that the case seemed very light to her. Maybe she got an enhanced level of strength from the body change?

Anyways, once she was done, she saw another compartment where she'd find a pretty high sum of **rings** on it. (I'm considering the rings being Mobius' currency) She picked up the rings and then put them inside the case as well before exiting her room. Then she looked down at Mobius from the window, then looked at the Station Square picture she held in her hands.

"...I guess I have to do this." Once the image of Station Square was in her mind, she grabbed the Fake Emerald and held it in front of her as she started to concentrate.

...

Maria was in for the ride of a lifetime once she arrives to Mobius.

" **Chaos... Control!** " And with that, the ARK was only a shell of its former glory yet again...

* * *

 _For those of you who are thinking Maria is acting Out-Of-Character, keep in mind: She has **Amnesia** , like how Shadow had before. I plan on using this to give her a more different personality later on, while still retaining some of her gentle personality from the past._

Fanfiction Theme Song: **GARNiDELiA - Error**


	2. An Angel in Mobius

_Now then. Off to start off this tale between the Devil (Shadow) and the Angel (Maria)._

 _Game Hajimemashou ka?_

* * *

Westopolis, the second biggest city before Station Square, and also the main home for G.U.N Agent **Shadow the Hedgehog** and his Team Dark. Not many things were going on, so Shadow was having a break from his Agent work as he rested up in an apartment on Westopolis, and for the first time of his life... he was bored.

"...Is this why Sonic is always so active and runs almost anywhere in the world...?" He wondered for himself, leaning on a window as he looked out into the sky.

Honestly, he couldn't really care himself for whatever the blue blur - his "faker" per say - was doing all around the place, he had his things, he had his friends... and girlfriends, too, but that didn't really mattered for Shadow.

As for Shadow, he's at most calm with his new life now, having decided to let his past behind him for good, although he still sometimes calls back to it on occasion, but he's a lot better than before now, and it didn't seem it would change anytime soon... Or he thought so.

* * *

 _ **MARIA  
** BETWEEN ANGELS & DEVILS_

 ** _Episode 1:_** _A Guardian Angel arrives in Mobius_

* * *

Meanwhile, in the middle of Station Square's biggest park, Maria, which had done a "Chaos Control" from the ARK, has appeared here. She looked around and noticed the nature around her and also the skyscrapers around the park; she was slightly confused at first, but calmed down as she started to exit the park and walk around the sidewalks of Station Square for a moment, trying to get used to the new surroundings around her. She had never been in a real city before, but this one was already overwhelming her in several aspects.

Station Square was highly Technological, almost as if it came from a Sci-Fi movie, it had many lights, many vehicles on the road, pedestrians using gadgets she's never seen before. It was very overwhelming for her and it left her quite confused and asking in her head _"What's this? What's that?"_. It was natural for someone as curious as her to want to know about all of those things, but there was so much stuff that it really overwhelmed her mind and even started to give her a slight headache.

"Maybe I should find a place to stay before doing anything else..." she said to herself, in which a red male cat heard her mumbling.

"If you're looking for somewhere to stay, there's a good hotel nearby that lets people stay for a good price." He told her.

"Oh, th-thank you!" She answered him, bowing for respect as well as she walked over to the said hotel the male cat told her to, reaching it with little time. With the rings she had on her, she managed to buy a room for herself in it as she heads for the place. It was a decent room, living on the 10th floor of the hotel building; it had a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and it was all well and good, she was basically settled in now.

"Okay... I just need to rest up for now... That was too much for a single day..." She said to herself, going to rest up for a moment.

* * *

One day later, Maria would return to walk around Station Square for a bit, exploring its massive area. Station Square was a lot more easier to get used to as she walked around it on this day. She talked with some of the people to get directions and was mostly trying to get comfortable in the new setting she was in now. With the rings she had, she went to visit some shops along Station Square, be them clothing stores, food restaurants, gadget shops, you name it. Then, she goes to visit another clothing store named 'Honey's Gifts & Boots', pretty crazy name, but it does its job. She enters the store and is quickly greeted by the owner, **Honey the Cat**.

 _(A/N: TOLD YA. Although Honey is an official SEGA character which was sent into purgatory, she's still on the Archie. Also, the design I'll use for her has been made by "honeythecat_club" as a Wallpaper on DeviantArt.)_

"Hello, nyan!" The cat greeted her. Maria took a moment to look at the girl that was in front of her; Honey the Cat looked very young, wearing a red & black tank-top, black arm sleeves that have a small red cover for her white-gloved hands, red short-shorts tied by a black belt that has a black tie-like loincloth with grey lines around it, red, white and black boots and red goggles she kept over her head; she also weirdly has two small glowing angel wings that were floating on her sides, and Maria found that weird. Was she an Angel? Or those were just for show?

"Um... N-Nice to meet you." Maria answered her.

"Are you looking for new clothes to buy? You look like a person that mostly prefers to stick to one clothing~nyan!" Honey mostly ended her sentences with "~nyan!", probably because she was a cat, but Maria never really got it.

"Well... I had these kinds of clothes ever since I was born. Of course, in different sizes, but still..." Honey could tell Maria was a pretty shy person as she answered her. "I... quite like them."

"Blue seems to be your favorite color~nyan!" Honey said back to her.

"Really? I mean, I didn't quite mind that there's mostly blue in my clothes." She answered, even moving her body a bit to check out her own clothes. "I like the detail it gives off, and... it kinda feels a bit nostalgic."

"Really nice~!" Honey said. "I could probably help you in getting some clothes that could fit you like those ones~nyan!"

"Umm... Okay." Maria said as she pressed her fingers. Then, Honey grabbed her arm and pulled her into her shop, going to start to show her many of the clothing options Maria had inside the store. At the very least, Honey let Maria look calmly through them and not really drag her too much around her shop, and Maria liked the many options she had. Maria didn't have a lot to talk with Honey, as she didn't have much to talk, but Honey commented a lot on how her dream is to one day make her own line of clothing and have a shop dedicated to it.

* * *

After shopping for some time, Maria exited the shop with a bag of some outfits she had chosen to use and she had quite the amount of fun while choosing the clothes, Honey being the main core of that fun. "This has been very fun, Honey! Thank you!" Maria said to her.

"I'm glad we were able to have fun buying your clothes together~nyan!" Honey answered. Even though she was the owner of the shop, Honey always had lots of fun helping her customers to choose the clothes they mostly connect with. "Can you come back to the shop more times, Maria~nyan?"

"Oh, definitely!" Maria answered. "I would like to visit you more often, Honey!"

Maria was pretty much very happy she managed to make a new friend in this world already so quickly.

Then, without warning, the Earth below them started to shake, and while Maria had to hold on to the wall to keep her balance, Honey was able to keep her balance just fine.

"W-What's going on!?" Maria asked.

"It's… probably **Dr. Eggman** again." Honey answered, to which Maria got slightly confused.

"…Dr. Eggman?"

* * *

 ** _BREAK TIME  
_** **(This will be used for story announcements or random moments. Think of it as the commercial cuts from an Anime.)**

 _Now then, I'm requesting you guys to be able to help me find good Beta Readers for my story, so that I can have their help in making this series not become very bland or boring for you guys. I'm trying, ok? I want to make sure this story is good enough and makes enough sense so it doesn't sound like an asspull._

 ** _STORY TIME_**

* * *

Honey and Maria jogged over to where the battle was happening and saw that one of Eggman's old robots, the **Egg Spider** , was fighting against a Blue Hedgehog and a Yellow Fox with two tails that was using a small Mecha to fight him off, and it seemed the Mecha was more maneuverable than Eggman's own big robot.

"…Who are those two?" Maria asked Honey, seeing the hedgehog and fox fighting off the robot spider.

"Oh, those two are pretty famous around these parts~nyan! Those are the old pair that always takes on and defeat Eggman whenever he appears, the blue hedgehog is named **Sonic** , and the yellow fox is named **Tails** ~nyan!"

The names weren't really familiar to her as she watched the two fight Eggman off themselves. Then, the Spider swatted one of its legs on Tails, which broke the Mecha and sent Tails flying; out of seemingly instinct, Maria dashed towards a building wall and did a wall jump off from it towards the air, where she managed to catch Tails as he flew over them. Maria used the wall across to jump off and slide on the ground to a stop as she checked on Tails. But then, she realized:

 _"What the-!?"_ She thought _"I-I did all of that!?"_

"Whoa… T-Thanks…" Tails was a bit dizzy, but he shook his head and got back to be fine. Maria put him down to the floor.

5 years can do a lot to young people, and Tails looked a lot more mature now: He still kept his yellow and white fur, but he had different clothes on him now, all of them having a brown color; he was wearing aviator goggles on his forehead similar to how Honey's goggles were arranged, fingerless mechanic gloves, cargo shorts with a belt equipped with some tools, and lastly, boots.

"Ah, Tails! Are you okay~nyan?!" Honey dashed towards him as she checked him out to see if there were any injuries. Tails had blushed a slight bit.

"Uhh, I'm fine, but what are you doing here, Honey?!" It seems Tails knew Honey, maybe something happened between the two before?

 _(A/N: Remember that "Sonic the Fighters" event on the Archie where Tails & Honey fought against each other? Yeah, that's canon here.)_

"Why, I'm watching your battle, of course!" She answered.

"You two… know each other?" Maria asked them, to which Tails nodded.

"We… kind of had a friendly match once in a tournament where Honey freaking tricked me to win…" Tails answered with a bit of venom, he was still triggered at what Honey did to him to win the match.

However, their focus quickly went back to Eggman as Sonic landed beside them as he looked up, seeing the doctor laugh.

"This time you're mine, Sonic!" He shouted, firing off a set of missiles towards Sonic, which grinned responding by jumping up and doing various Homing Attacks on the missiles as he climbed upwards and hit Eggman's capsule with another homing attack, damaging the robot as it flew backwards. Sonic did a ground stomp before then boosting after the robot. Maria watched everything with her eyes and was a bit curious to Sonic's abilities.

"Phew… He's quicker than before that I wonder if he has even reached Mach 20 or more…" Tails commented.

"Mach 20?" Maria asked Tails.

"It's a level of speed faster than the sound, Mach 1 being the Speed of Sound itself, and every other speed above Mach 1 being a Supersonic speed." Tails explained to her.

"Huh… So he's not called 'Sonic' for nothing…" Maria commented.

"That's why he's our hero!" Honey said. "But even heroes need help sometimes, which is why he has Tails here~nyan!"

"Does he have more?" Maria wondered, putting a hand on her chin.

"Oh, he does have more." Tails said. "There's **Knuckles the Echidna** , which is an Echidna guardian of the Master Emerald back at Angel Island, **Amy Rose** , which is another Hedgehog that's… kind of obsessed with Sonic still even after all these years, and then there's Sonic's actual girlfriend, **Sally Acorn** , a Chipmunk/Squirrel hybrid member of the Royal Acorn Family which lives in another city named 'Mobotropolis'."

"That's… a weird name, if you ask me." Maria said, commenting on the city's name. "But doesn't he kind of need help right now, then? He dashed off alone to take on that robot and it seems tough…"

"Yeah, but I need to fix up my Mecha if I wanna keep up." Tails said, looking back to his broken Mecha. Maria felt a bit sorry for him once she saw it; Tails went to fix up his Mecha with the tools from his belt and a bit of help from Honey, but Maria looked towards the direction Sonic ran off to, and became worried. Her body then moved by herself as she **vaulted** through the police barrier and started to run off towards Sonic's location, the protests of both Tails and Honey not being heard anymore because her speed was climbing, and fast. _"W-What…?"_ she thought _"Why am I running…?! W-What makes me!?"_

She kept running and running, her speed climbing up fast as she then threw her arms backwards and ran faster, a vortex starting to appear around her. _"Wait… what is this…!?"_ she thought, seeing the vortex form around her. Then, the barrier suddenly broke all over her as her speed climbed tremendously and a yellow aura formed around her without either touching her body or blocking her vision.

She had **boosted** , she broke the sound barrier.

Maria called back to Tails' words: **_"…a level of speed faster than the sound, Mach 1 being the Speed of Sound itself, and every other speed above Mach 1 being a Supersonic Speed."_**

 _"So… I basically managed to go beyond the Speed of Sound!?"_ Maria thought, finding it exhilarating, but still slightly scary. Once she managed to see Sonic and Eggman fighting off in the distance around some Green Plains, Maria started to skid to a stop from the Speed of Sound, and she did after 20 seconds, managing to keep a careful distance from her and the battle.

Sonic was managing to damage the Egg Spider a bit, but it was still very hard. It seemed the Robot Spider was very resilient now after all those years.

"…I…" Maria was wondering what to do. "…I got to do something!"

* * *

 ** _BREAK TIME_**

 _If you're wondering where I'm getting the inspiration to make Maria's new personality, think of her as a "Female Deku", and if you don't know, "Deku" is the alias of the Protagonist "Midoriya Izuku" from the anime "My Hero Academia". Her personality will slightly change through the story so that she doesn't feel like an Izuku clone, but the main inspiration comes from Izuku's desire to help the people no matter the risks._

 ** _STORY TIME_**

* * *

Dr. Eggman was too focused fighting Sonic to focus on Maria as she ran at high speeds to the Spider, which was swatting its legs a lot to hit Sonic. Maria saw the legs moved a lot and used her instincts to avoid them, she wasn't thinking on what to do there, she was letting her own body move on its own to avoid the legs, and it did so with some very acrobatic moves Maria herself didn't knew she had before. "This is totally… Crazy!" She said to herself as she avoided the legs.

Sonic wasn't really having any trouble in avoiding the legs, but was indeed having trouble to damage the Egg Spider because of how constant was their movement. "Jeez! You've become more annoying with the years Eggman! Did you get some nasty spicy food?" Sonic snarkly commented to Eggman as he jumped to avoid another as he ran through it to deal a homing attack on Eggman's capsule.

Maria, meanwhile, managed to get behind the Egg Spider and started climbing up its body to the top, and once it did, she tried to keep herself balanced on the body that was moving all over. Then, she noticed the capsule Eggman was in and the lever that was used to open it. She then took out the Fake Chaos Emerald she had on her hand and remembered Gerald's words in saying the "Chaos Control" could not only make her able to teleport, but also to manipulate time itself. She then ran towards the capsule, and once she was close enough that Eggman heard footsteps, he turned around and once he did (which Sonic also noticed).

 **"Chaos… CONTROL!"** she used the Fake Emerald for the Chaos Control, this time to **stop time altogether** , or actually, just slow it enough for her to do her thing: She used the lever to open the capsule quickly and got in as she saw an Auto-Destruction lever cleverly hidden inside the cockpit. She pulled it and got out just in time for the Chaos Control to fade out and time to revert back to normal.

And once it, Eggman noticed the lever was pulled and looked at the Hedgehog girl in panic. "W-WHAT DID YOU DO!?" he shouted, to which Maria didn't answer, boosting through one of the Spider's Legs to get out of the range. Meanwhile, Sonic also noticed she pulled the Self-Destruction lever and dashed away. Eggman, frustrated, detached his capsule from the robot and flew away. "THIS ISN'T THE END, SONIC! ONE DAY, I WILL DEFEAT YOU!"

The robot then blew up in a Gigantic Explosion as Maria dashed to a stop clear from the radius as she looked at the explosion and the tiny capsule Eggman was in flying away into the distance.

Then the realization hit her:

"EH!? WHAT?!" She started to freak out and say a lot of unintelligible words about how she was able to just sneak into Eggman's Robot and managed to destroy it by using the own robot's Self-Destruction system to defeat him. Sonic then tapped her shoulder.

"Hey." He called her, which made her do a "YIPE!" and turn to Sonic's direction. "That was some fine sneaking you did there, and you even used Chaos Control! So who are ya, miss?"

"Oh… U-Um…" Maria tried to present herself, but her nervous nature was making her words become a bit vague.

"Hey, get a good breath and calm down." Sonic helped her in calming down, in which Maria followed Sonic's instructions and started to calmly breathe a bit, and once she did, she managed to make sure her presentation was better:

"M-My name is… Maria…"

"Maria? Huh, either you're an Angel or there was something I didn't know at the ARK." Sonic commented, making Maria look at him weirdly.

"What?"

"Well, I was at the ARK once." Sonic said. "But I never saw anything similar to you. Where did you come from?"

 _"I-It seems this hedgehog knows about the ARK as well…"_ Maria thought. "I'm… I'm not really sure… B-But can you tell me what happened at that ARK? M-My head's… so fuzzy right now…"

"So you have Amnesia." Sonic said, to which Maria nodded. "Heh. Unsurprising, it's as if anyone that comes from that place has Amnesia of some kind."

Maria dropped a sweat at that answer.

"Anyways. So it seems the dead do come back in some way or another."

"…S-So you also know about… wh-what happened up there…?" Maria asked him, wanting to get at least some of her memory back, even if she already knows some things by herself.

"Well, I kinda do, but then again, I think it'd be best if Mr. Black Hedgehog himself could tell you." Sonic commented.

"Black… Hedgehog…?" Maria said, in which her mind flashed the image of said black hedgehog: Shadow. She held her head suddenly, suffering a minor headache.

"Oops. Your mind's still pretty fragile, I guess." Sonic commented, noticing Maria's reaction.

"F-Fragile…?" Maria asked, confused about what was Sonic talking about.

"Yeah. When someone has recent Amnesia, their minds sometimes can't be reminded of past events so immediately, or it will make them break their minds." Sonic explained. "…Tails told me that."

"I…I see…" Maria commented, her headache now gone as she stood straight up for now. "I-I would s-still like to know what happened one day…"

"Ah, I'm sure you will. Just calm down, you'll be fine later." Sonic said.

Then, Tails and Honey started to approach with Tails' mecha, which had turned into a fighter plane, it seemed. "Sonic!" Tails called out, making both Sonic and Maria look towards them. "Hey, Tails! You missed the most awesome Beginner's beating ever!"

"What?" The plane landed on the group as a mecha as Honey jumped off and ran to Maria, hugging her. "Don't make me worried~nya!" She said, hugging Maria tightly.

"Sorry for making you worried, Honey…" Maria said. "B-But I don't know what came over me… I-I started suddenly moving by myself!"

"SHE DID WHAT!?" Tails suddenly shouted to Sonic as he then turned to look at Maria, to which she looked back with Honey in curiosity.

"…What?" The two girls said at the same time in curiosity.

Tails turned back to Sonic. "Sonic, there's no way someone like her would've been able to do that, she seems inexperienced!"

Sonic kept explaining the events until he said Maria had a Chaos Emerald on her. To which Tails looked at her again and saw Maria pulled out a yellow Chaos Emerald.

"I-It's only fake, though…" Maria said. "It's not really that powerful…"

Tails approached and took the Emerald to check it out. "Hm… True. It has the same wavelength and properties, but it's not as powerful. Still, how were you able to use Chaos Control with this emerald without having any experience?"

"Um… S-Someone taught me how to do it… I-It was only a pre-recorded message, though…" she explained to them.

"I see… This might have more than how it seems." Tails said, looking at the Fake Emerald for a moment. It was a yellow emerald, and it looked exactly the same as the real one, even to the minor details. You wouldn't be able to know the difference unless you were able to harness its energy, which Sonic & Tails can do so. "Um, Maria. Would it be too much to ask if you could come with me? I'd like to know more about you and what brought you here."

"Oh, um… s-sure." Maria said. "J-Just let's not talk about my past; I… still have trouble remembering it…"

"No problem." Tails answered, starting to walk to the Mecha and climbing onto it, transforming it into the fighter plane as it hovered above the ground with a VTOL system. A cockpit area opened. "You can get into the second cockpit, Sonic and Honey can climb onto the wings!"

"W-Wouldn't that be dangerous, though?!" Maria said.

"Oh, that's fine; The Tornado 6 has a Magnetic Gravitational Feature that allows for whoever is standing on its wings or body to not fall off the plane even at very high speeds." Tails replied, also telling her the name of his Plane/Mecha.

 _(A/N: This is 5 years later from the canon time; you think no one has updated their features since then?)_

"Oh… Um, o-okay." Maria said back, going to climb the Plane and sit down on the second cockpit, putting the seatbelts and closing the canopy. Honey and Sonic climbed onto Tails' wings. "Honey, shouldn't you be back at your shop?" Tails talked to her.

"Hey, Genius, I still have people there that can help take care of my shop while I'm gone, ok? I just wanna check up on my new friend here~nyan!" Honey answered.

"Oh, fine, whatever." Tails answered, starting the plane up and then flying it back to Station Square and in the direction of his workshop in the outskirts of the city.

 _"I… I actually did that…"_ Maria thought _"It's not a dream…"_

 _"…Is this what Gerald meant by… being strong…?"_

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the area, Shadow himself noticed the small amount of Chaos Energy having been used on the area as he looked at the explosion epicenter and the destroyed robot.

"…This is Shadow; I've arrived at the location." He contacted the GUN HQ. "Eggman's robot was destroyed here, but I'm also discovering trace amounts of Chaos Energy having been used here."

["We both know Sonic the Hedgehog, or any Freedom Fighter for that matter, never uses Chaos Energy to fight off Eggman unless they're using their Super forms… Shadow, you must investigate this event at all costs and find out who used Chaos Energy to defeat Eggman. I'll send in Team Dark later to your location."]

"Roger that, sir." Shadow answered before cutting communications as he looked at the area.

 _"This Chaos Energy…"_ Shadow thought. _"I know it's 'Chaos Control', but it feels more familiar than that… What the Hell…?"_

* * *

 _And there we go. Episode End!_

 _I hope this episode's been good enough for you guys to enjoy… And keep in mind the messages I gave on the Break Times to make sure you understand the story and why I'm doing this to Maria. So don't worry, if she's OOC, it's for a good reason._

 _Also, I've now discovered who made the Design for Maria the Hedgehog that I'm using right now! His profile is **E09ETM** , go check him out on DeviantArt!_


	3. The Angel's Training

_Now then, did you guys notice that on each Sonic story, be it on the Games of Archie, there are always teams of 3 for each Sonic character?_

 _Team Heroes is always Sonic, Tails & Knuckles;_

 _Team Dark is always Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega;_

 _Team Rose is Amy, Cream and Blaze (BIG DOESN'T COUNT);_

 _Team Babylon is always Jet, Wave and Storm;_

 _Team Chaotix is always Espio, Charmy and Vector (With a bit of Mighty in the mix);_

 _Team Hooligan is always Fang/Nack, Bean and Bark (With a bit of Nicollete, I guess.)._

 _So then, why not create a Team set for **Maria** to be in? While E09ETM has Team Magic on his DeviantArt, I'll have a different team for Maria in this story: **Team Light**. Currently, I'm organizing Team Light including Maria, and her newfound friend, **Honey** , now, I need a 3rd character, and I wanna know: Do you guys want this 3rd Character to be official or Fan-made?_

* * *

Arriving in Station Square, Shadow looked around the place while messing a bit with his cellphone. He was still trying to locate the source of the Chaos Energy that had suddenly appeared in the outskirts of Station Square in the Green Fields. He was waiting for his Team to arrive to help him with the search of that source, but he was still pretty much confused. Once he inspected the area back there, he saw that the Chaos Energy source was the genuine article, but it just felt weaker than before. However, he also noted the Energy was sort of similar to his, only not in a destructive way.

"…Whoever is using this Chaos Energy might have something related to me… But I'm not sure about that, yet." Shadow talked to himself. "Still… Did Dr. Gerald make another Ultimate Life-Form like me…? It doesn't seem like so…"

There were still a lot of mysteries about this person managing to control Chaos Energy that Shadow wanted to find out, and he **will** do so, and no one will stop him!

* * *

 ** _MARIA  
_** _BETWEEN ANGELS & DEVILS_

 ** _Episode 2:_** _The Angel's Training_

* * *

Having traveled with the group on the Tornado 6, Maria arrived on Tails' Workshop that was located on the Hillsides of Station Square. It was a very simple place, it looked like a Plane Hangar from the outside, but it had lots of details outside that made the place look like a small part of the Cyberpunk trope that the main city had. Maria was a bit surprised.

The fighter plane then started to land using the same landing gears for VTOL, which had now formed small wheels, as it then landed and started stopping on the runway that was being used for the plane; it then stopped in front of the workshop, making everyone being free to exit the plane and check out the main place.

"This feels very small… At least for me…" Maria said, commenting on the workshop.

"Well, yeah, it is very small on the outside…" Tails said. "But once you enter, you're going to say otherwise."

And once the 4 did, Maria just inhaled in surprise.

The Workshop did look even bigger on the inside, especially the initial living room. It was very spacious, having a big enough window by the side, a long couch that turns a bit around the wall, a small table in the middle before the Widescreen TV that was stuck to the wall.

"…T…This feels…a lot bigger than the room I live…" Maria commented.

"Where do ya live then, Maria?" Sonic asked her.

"A-A small room at the Station Square city… Inside a hotel…" She answered.

"I see, so that's why you got so surprised." Tails commented. "Well, make yourself at home if you want, you can get back to your apartment later, I mean, like I said, I just wanted to know more about you and make you be more comfortable."

Honey jokingly approached from behind and hugged Tails a bit, to which Tails reacted in surprise and reared back from her. "What are you doing!?"

"Why, can't I hug an old friend, Tails~nyan?" She giggled.

"Are you two… dating perhaps…?" Maria asked, to which Tails blushed heavily.

"NO! W-What gave you that idea!?" Tails answered. "S-She just likes to tease me a lot!"

Maria laughed a slight bit. "Well, it does seem like you two are a couple. A cute one at that!"

"Well, while you can say that…" Tails spoke, scratching his head a bit. "…I haven't really… had a really good luck with relationships."

"Ah, don't feel so bad, Tails!" Sonic said, tapping Tails' back. "You'll find someone to get it on with. Heck, Honey here's a good candidate."

Tails blushed again. "Like I don't freaking know that…" Honey hugged him again, only it was a bit better this time.

"It's all better, Tails~nyan!" She said, hugging him nicely. Maria could notice Tails slightly smiled as Honey hugged him. _"…He's really wanting to have a girlfriend…"_ she thought, going to sit down at the couch. After Honey let Tails go, he went to sit across from her while Honey sat beside her. Sonic went to sit on the other couch.

"So, Maria… You come from the ARK, right?" Tails asked, in which she nodded. "Is it safe to assume that… You are someone that lived in it?"

"The first thing I knew about me was my real name… Which is **Maria Robotnik**." She answered, and that just did it for both Tails and Sonic.

"And when you think she's gone, too…" Sonic commented. Maria looked confused.

"Listen… We kind of know who you are; we just don't know how did you… 'Revive', per say, as a Hedgehog." Tails said. "Can you tell me what were you first experience after 55 years?"

Maria breathed for a moment before then calming down enough and remembering her first experience living after lots of years presumed 'dead'.

"It was… very weird." She started. "I was encased in a capsule of some sort… It was very cold… But then, the capsule started to heat up, and I started to wake up… After a bit, I was able to walk normally around the… small room I was. I was basically a bit naked and quickly became embarrassed. But exploring the room around me allowed me to find a small compartment where the clothes I currently wear were in."

"Did you manage to get out of that room at first?" Tails asked, in which Maria shook her head.

"The room was locked from the outside." She said. "Then, I started hearing a voice through my headphones. He presented himself as… **Gerald Robotnik** …? I think that was his name…"

"Do you know who that old man was?" Sonic asked, to which Maria shook her head yet again. "Well, he was your granddad."

"My… Grandfather?" Maria's assumption that Gerald was a familiar then was right. "…I see…"

"…Did you have an assumption?" Tails asked, to which Maria did her first nod.

"When he said his full name, I saw his surname was similar to mine, so I had that assumption in my head." She answered.

"Oh boy, do I have a doozy…" Sonic said, to which Maria turned to look at him. "You know that guy, Dr. Eggman you just kicked the ass off?"

"Uhh… What about it?" Maria was pretty much confused.

"…His real name is **Ivo Robotnik**. And he's your cousin." Sonic's answer made Maria gasp a slight bit. "Yeah, like I told ya: A real doozy."

"B-But why is he doing all those things in d-destroying the city?! T-That's not right!" Maria argued.

"Maria, listen…" Tails started. "If you were here 5 years earlier, you would understand." Maria turned to Tails. "Before I dwell further into this, I need to know more about your first experiences, more likely how you learned the Chaos Control."

"Well, that's when… my grandfather was talking to me through these Headphones." Maria said while she pulled off the headphones from her head.

"Wow! They're really stylish~nyan!" Honey commented.

"I know, right?" Maria said back while handing the device to Tails to inspect it. "He told me about the many events that happened on the ARK and… he was the one that taught me how to do the Chaos Control with my Fake Emerald." She showed the Yellow Emerald again.

"Hm. I see…" Tails said, still checking out the headphones.

"After that…" Maria continued "…Gerald told me about the pictures of both my room and Station Square, and I practiced my Chaos Control with that. It's… how I was able to also use it again at that battle, although, I only used it to teleport. Never to… Stop time altogether…"

"So that was the first time you stopped time using the Fake Emerald?" Tails asked, to which Maria nodded. "Whoa… I've seen Shadow do that a lot of times, but he was only able to slow time to a good point, and he never really stopped it altogether."

"Well, it felt to me **she** managed to stop time." Sonic commented.

 _(A/N: Spare me your DIO or Sakuya memes, please.)_

"Then maybe her Chaos Energy capabilities are larger than Shadow…?" Tails thought, but then he noticed Maria was holding her head a bit. "A-Are you okay?!"

"I-It's that… name… 'Shadow'… It's just making me hurt my head so much…!" She answered, holding her head a bit.

Tails and Sonic looked at each other, then at Maria, then back at each other. Then, the two started to talk by themselves for a moment, with Honey trying to help Maria cope with her headache. "You have Amnesia, right…?" She asked her.

"Y-Yeah… I-I don't remember a lot…" Maria answered. "But that name just… hurts my head… I want to find out who it is, but… I can't do that without risking my mind…"

"It's gonna be fine." Honey reassured her. "Just don't think about it too much~nyan."

Maria nodded as she breathed a bit and calmed down, the headache disappearing as she smiled to Honey. "…Thanks."

"So…" Tails spoke again, making Honey and Maria turn to him. "You have a type of Amnesia, which makes your head hurt if you try to remember very important people of things, so we've decided to… be a bit more careful on that note."

"Thank you…" Maria said back. "This could make me more comfortable."

"Now then… What did you do after you managed your Chaos Control and things in the ARK?" Tails asked.

"I… packed up my things and then used Chaos Control again to appear in Station Square. I managed to buy a room and get myself fitted in." She answered, finishing her story and with Tails handing back her headphones.

"That was… a pretty weird first experience, if you do let me comment." Tails said. "So, you might probably still need help in… getting used to the new environment, I guess, right?"

She nodded.

"I could do that!" Honey said. "I can also introduce her to some other friends I have, too~nyan!"

"Hm, seeing you're her first friend here, this might work." Tails said. "But there's also another thing that confused me: How were you able to defeat Eggman back at that place?" He asked to Maria.

"I'm… not really sure." She answered. "My body just… moved on its own lots of times and I also even… broke the sound barrier, too!"

"Oh, great." Sonic said. "Another person that'll give me a run for my mone-OW!" He was clocked in the head by Tails. "Be polite." He said, but then thought: _"If what I'm thinking is right, then Maria is somehow similar to Shadow in many senses. Only she feels nicer than him…"_

"So you say your body moved on its own as you dashed to Eggman?" Maria nodded at that. "Hm… You must've used of your **instincts** , then."

"Instincts?" Maria didn't really know lots of things about the world, due to lack of a normal childhood.

"It's when your body does a response on its own about a situation. Your instincts must've allowed you to avoid Eggman's Robot's legs as you went in and then used the Self-Destruction system to defeat him."

"Y-Yeesh…" Maria cringed a bit. "I didn't really know I was that acrobatic…"

"You probably still need some more training, and while I'm a bit against it, Sonic can help you with that." Tails said, pointing his thumb at him.

"I can help with what?" Sonic asked, pretending to be clueless while Tails deadpanned towards him.

"Dummy. You need to train her in how to control her speed and getting her to learn some of your tricks. She IS able to keep up with you." Tails explained.

"W-Why? What's wrong, Mr. Sonic?" Maria asked him.

"First off: Just call me Sonic." He outright said to her. "Second off: It's just that I don't want anyone taking my title of 'The Fastest Thing Alive'. Sha-Oh sorry, I mean, that Faker's already a run for my money…"

Maria assumed they were talking about Shadow and just weren't trying to use his name to not give her a headache, to which she smiled a bit. "I-I don't really… think of myself like that… I just have a… high-rate of speed on foot, I'm guessing… but I'm not really fond of being the fastest thing alive…"

Sonic smiled at that. "Heh, Good to know! I guess I can help ya, then!" He said, extending his gloved hand to her, to which she took and shook their hands with.

Now that she took a good look at Sonic, she could see that he was a matured man. Being 25 years old, Sonic wore some sport glasses on his forehead like the goggles on Tails & Honey, his trademark white gloves, blue shorts and his trademark red and white sneakers.

"Now then, if you don't mind me borrowing her for a moment, Honey~!" He used the hands they were holding to then drag Maria outside and climb up the hill with her, to which Honey showed an interrogation point above her head comically.

* * *

 ** _BREAK TIME_**

 _Something I forgot to ask at Episode 1, but you guys could also help me in deciding how to handle this story by telling me which events do you want me to do next on the future episodes of Maria's adventure. Yes, you can actively help me in writing my story if you want! Tell me your ideas in the reviews and I'll consider how to do them on my story!_

 ** _STORY TIME_**

* * *

Sonic brought Maria to the top of the hill, which showed a wide open grass area for them to practice on. Sonic firstly started to stretch out while Maria watched him; however, Sonic noticed her lack of movement. "What are ya doing standing still there?" He asked her.

"Eh? Ah, um… I don't know how to start…" She answered.

"Well, you always need to stretch out like how I'm doing here. Hold on." Sonic went to help Maria in letting her know how to stretch herself to make her able to practice better. Maria was a bit surprised in how flexible her body was while she stretched out, and while Sonic helping her stretch was slightly embarrassing (He had to touch her in some areas, but no perverseness, at least), it at least helped her in knowing how well she could stretch her body, and even surprised her in some instances.

"What, you didn't knew you could stretch it like that?" Sonic sometimes commented.

"Well, n-no… I don't even know my capabilities yet…" Maria would always answer.

After they were done, Sonic would start training their speed by starting with a slow jog and Maria following close behind him. "So then, tell me a bit: How fast were you able to go on your first try?" Sonic asked her while they jogged.

"I… think I broke the Mach 1? I don't know, Tails told me that the Mach 1 was the sound's speed, and I kinda broke through that…" Maria answered, although she wasn't very sure yet.

"Heh. Cool! I've already passed beyond that with my years of experience, but I can help you get there!" He said, increasing the speed to a fast run, with Maria still following and also increasing her speed.

They kept going with this cycle until they managed to reach Mach 1, the familiar vortex of sound forming around them. Sonic then grabbed Maria's hand and then boosted, both of them breaking the sound barrier and dashing off at unbelievable speeds beyond the Mach 1, with Sonic guiding Maria all the way and letting her get used to the speeds they were running.

* * *

After that, Sonic went to try and check out if Maria could do some of the same tricks, to which he had a surprise:

"Huh. So you can't do a Homing Attack…" Sonic thought. Sonic had demonstrated how to do the Homing Attack by doing it against a rock, which he managed to break. Maria, however, was only able to do the Spin Jump and nothing more. "Can you do a Spin Dash?"

"What's that?" Maria asked, to which Sonic demonstrated by curling into a ball and then spinning in place while lots of smoke came from him. Then, he dashed off at high speeds towards another rock, breaking it. He boosted back after he had done that. "That's the Spin Dash."

"Wow…" Maria put a hand on her chin before then attempting the same thing. Turns out she was able to do it as she suddenly dashed off curled in a ball and breaking another rock. To which she started jogging back and slid to a stop beside Sonic. "I… guess I can do it, too."

"That's one thing, then." Sonic said. "Tails could probably help you in making you able to do the Homing Attack with some kind of grapple, but we'll look at it later. How about this one?"

Sonic did the Spin Jump and then performed his Ground Stomp, a small blue shockwave forming around him. Maria tried the same, but to no avail, in fact, she actually comically landed on her face rather than on her feet, making Sonic laugh at her fail. Maria tapped her fingers on the ground while she held her head with the other hand. "Very funny…" She said.

"S-Sorry, but that was just hilarious!" Sonic said while laughing. "Okay, so you can't do a Homing Attack or a Ground Stomp, that's already different enough. Do you have any other unique moves?"

"Hm…" Maria tried thinking about something before she then started to do the process of a Spin Dash, but then, when Sonic thought she was going to dash off, she suddenly **jumped** , the height being even bigger than a normal Spin Jump as Sonic saw her fly upwards to the Sky. Then, she landed normally on her feet, safely. "…That was different." Sonic commented.

"What should I call that move?" Maria asked him, to which Sonic said: "I'd say it's a… **Dash Jump**."

Maria then nodded, keeping that name on her head.

"Do you have some fighting abilities?" Sonic asked her, to which Maria shook her head. "Heh. Expected. I shall teach ya some moves, then, but you gotta teach yourself how to make your own fighting style, 'cause, well, you know I don't like copies."

"It'll be fine, Sonic." Maria reassured him. "I won't copy your abilities, alright?"

"Good, good. But don't speak like that a lot, it makes me feel like a father and I don't plan to be one so soon, hehe…" Sonic said to her while scratching his head; Maria giggled with him for a bit.

Sonic then started to teach Maria some fighting moves, for example, a punch, a kick and many others. He was a bit surprised at how quickly Maria was able to learn the fighting movements by herself; he concluded she could have some kind of 'Instant Learning' feature.

 _(A/N: Instant Learning is an actual power, believe it or not, and that's what Maria has.)_

After some short moments, Maria was able to learn the Martial Arts Sonic showed her and devised her own style, focusing more on kicks for zoning and attacking and powerful punches to finish, although Sonic took notice that some of her punches created small wind pressure waves, implying her strength might be more than what he's thinking. _"Maybe she's a lot crazier than Shadow…"_ he thought.

* * *

After training her newfound skills and powers enough with Sonic, Maria was pretty much a ready girl, albeit she still had the gentle personality from before, she just knew how to defend herself now, after all. "…Thanks for training me, Sonic!" She said to him smiling.

"Hah. Don't mention it, it's the least I can do!" He answers, albeit a bit cocky. However, before they can celebrate more, a Container fell to their side and opened, revealing tons of robots starting to charge towards them. When Sonic heard the familiar laugh, he knew who it was.

"Again, Egg-head?" He said, smiling and looking up, seeing his familiar capsule up in the sky.

"I'll always come back, Sonic! Attack upon attack! Never ceasing to- HM!?" Eggman was in the middle of his speech before he then noticed the yellow hedgehog with him. " **YOU!** "

"Oh, um… Hi again… Cousin?" She sheepishly waved back at him, and the use of the word 'Cousin' made Eggman raise an eyebrow.

"Seriously? By the clothes, you can't recognize her? You're seriously a bird brain, Egg-head." Sonic mocked him.

"SILENCE!" Eggman shouted, pointing at him, before then pointing at the other Hedgehog. "And YOU! Who are you!?"

"Umm… It's a bit hard to explain it the first time, but…" She hesitated for a moment. "…My name is Maria."

"Maria…?!" Eggman already made the connection. "So this means you are…"

"Yes, I guess." She scratched her head, as if not really minding that connection.

"Very surprising, eh?" Sonic joked, to which Eggman glared at him for a moment "But Cousin!" …before Maria's voice put him back on track.

"Why are you doing this!? Why are you trying to take over the world in such a violent manner!?" She asked him in a way a child would just beg to their parent. Eggman just fixed his mustache for a moment while then speaking back to Maria.

"I'm sorry, Maria, but that is but a secret you need not to know! Especially since you've also started to defy me from that moment back." He was referring to when Maria destroyed his Spider with the Self-Destruction system.

"What?" Maria was a bit confused.

"It means he now hates you because you stopped his Spider back there, remember?" Sonic told her. "…Oh. Well, I-I had to, or he was going to hurt someone really badly!"

"Who, me? Nah, don't get worried about me." Sonic said, shrugging her off. "I've taken Eggman on thousands of times, never got badly hurt once!"

"HEY! You did indeed! And I captured you that time as well, remember!?" Eggman argued.

"HEY! That was just **once**! It won't happen again, okay!?"

What the two were arguing about was the time that Eggman used of a new ally, named **"Infinite"** , to defeat Sonic and take over the world as a result.

 _(A/N: I don't care how bad it was, Sonic Forces is canon here, and yes, that does mean the Avatar character is coming to this story, however, he won't be any OC of mine, instead, I'll use the one everyone's going with since his announcement: **Gadget the Wolf**.)_

"A-At any rate!" Maria stopped their argument. "E-Even if you try to keep going with this, Cousin… I… I… I will stop you!"

"HMPH! Your own funeral, then!" Eggman answered, extending his arm and letting the robots charge towards them.

Once they did, Maria suddenly got a flash from the past: her vision suddenly glitched, making the robots suddenly turned into human soldiers as they charged towards her. The vision made her eyes go wide as she suddenly dashed backwards, stopping just before the edge of the cliff.

The robots kept charging to her as she held her head as more visions flooded her mind, showing through her vision the times she seemed to look pretty weak or something similar. She then shook her head and looked up, seeing the robots still charging to her. She gritted her teeth.

 _"Was… Was I really that weak in my past…?!"_ she thought. _"No… I… I…"_

Then, her head came back to Gerald's last words to her:

 ** _"Be strong. This world may have thorns where you can hurt yourself, but if you manage to be strong enough, no one and nothing will ever be able to stop you from achieving your dreams."_**

She stopped grittering her teeth and had her eyes closed for the moment. She pulled out the Fake Emerald from her pockets and… just stood there for the moment.

Sonic was already taking care of some of the robots, but he saw how Maria was simply standing still at the cliff edge. "…Maria!?" He shouted to her.

 _"Gerald's right… I might've been a very weak person before… but I can't let that drag me down."_ She thought. _"I have to be stronger… I have to get stronger…!"_

Then, she rose her head and opened her eyes in a serious fashion, to which Sonic smirked at. She extended the Emerald in front of her, and in the moment the robots were about to tackle her…

 **"Chaos… CONTROL!"** She traveled a short distance using the Fake Emerald as she teleported to behind the group of robots. Putting the emerald back in her pocket, Maria then charged a Spin Dash before then aiming at one of the robots. After she destroyed the first with the dash, she then started a chain as she Dashed around the many robots as if she was homing in on them, and after destroying the last robot, she slid to a stop near the Cliff's Edge again. Eggman was surprised while Sonic was simply amused. "…a **Homing Spindash** , eh?" he commented.

"GRR! Come on, you slowpokes! Get her!" Eggman shouted, ordering his robots to chase after her again.

 _"Not today, Cousin…"_ Maria thought. _"I'm gonna show you now… **What I'm really made of!** "_

(Play: **Crush 40 – What I'm made of; from Sonic Heroes** )

Maria dashed after the robots chasing her as she did a Spin Jump and destroyed one of them as she landed on it; she landed on the ground and started to attack the next robot using of her kicks and finishing by punching a hole through it with a punch, pulling it out as sparks flew out from the robot and flew around Maria, giving Eggman a rather fearful look of who she's trying to become now.

She continued fighting with her kicks and punches on the robots and using of the skills she learned from Sonic to defeat them as well, when some robots suddenly surrounded her, she did the motion for the Spin Dash, then performed her new **Dash Jump** , as she jumped high in the sky. "I'm not someone weak anymore!" She shouted, lifting a leg up as she then fell down towards the robots. She then landed the kick, destroying the robots around her and creating a strong earthquake in the hill that even cracked the ground around them, with Sonic also trying to keep his balance over the powerful attack.

"What is this!? You aren't supposed to be this strong!" Eggman shouted.

"…You can thank Grandpa." Maria said, standing up and dusting herself off.

"Grandpa…" Eggman then gasped. "G-Gerald made this body for you!?"

"Not only that… It seems he left some gifts for me in this body… for me to defend myself…" She started walking towards Eggman, Sonic dashing behind and walking towards him along with her; Maria looked at her hand. "From what I can tell… he gave me an Enhanced Strength… an Enhanced Speed, which is what makes me able to keep up with Sonic… and probably an Enhanced Mind, too, as I can learn new abilities in an instant and get stronger with every new ability I manage to learn, even if I do lack in some of them…" She then looked up at Eggman. "But with these things Grandpa left me with… I'll definitely get stronger… and protect this world from people like you!" On that last part, she pointed at Eggman; and after she was done with her speech, Sonic jumped in the air and slammed onto Eggman's capsule in a Homing Attack. "…and I won't do it alone, either." Maria added after Sonic did his attack.

"CURSE YOU, MARIAAAAAAA!" Eggman shouted, he was basically frustrated, but he wasn't going to give up yet. He flew out towards the distance and flew down the cliff, Maria felt it wasn't over yet, but then, the Earth started to shake, and then, a huge robot burst out from the ground. It was Eggman's old **Egg Dragoon** , and it seems it hasn't really been well kept by the doctor for all those 5 years of use.

"Yeesh. That machine again, Egg-face?" Sonic said.

Maria, however, slightly walked backwards as Sonic looked at her.

"…Is… Is he… really gonna go… that far…?!" Maria said, and it showed the obvious fear she had about dying.

She didn't want to go down now, not until she knows completely everything about herself.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Station Square, Shadow received a communication from HQ:

["Agent Shadow! Come in!"]

"Shadow here, what's going on?"

["Dr. Eggman has been spotted at some hills near this area! We're already sending Team Dark over, but just get going, quickly!"]

"Roger that, sir!" He answered, already using his Air Sneakers to rush at high speeds towards the hillsides on the outskirts of Station Square.

 _"This doctor…"_

* * *

 _I know, I know, it's a cliffhanger, but come on, dammit, **5000 words!?** I wasn't expecting to do a lot of those in such a short span of time, and this is only Episode 2!_

 _Anyways, on the next episode, you'll see how much power I'll be giving Maria now, and I hope you guys don't mind it. But even if you don't like it, PLEASE, don't flame me because of it. While I do want some help from you guys to learn how to do this story better, I at least want to make sure that some elements can go up here, alright?_

 _See ya next chapter!_


	4. Angel's Awakening

_Alright! Time to continue the battle against Eggman, and for Maria to finally awaken!_

 _Ready? Set?_ _ **GO!**_

* * *

Maria was scared, it didn't show much, but you could tell by her movements that she was pretty scared. She saw the robot dragon monstrosity in front of her, Eggman's old "Egg Dragoon", and couldn't really find it in herself to say a word about it… which was not the case for Sonic.

"Heh. I've seriously beaten that thing countless times, what makes you think I can't now?" He mocked him.

"Well, because I did some upgrades on it as I fixed it!" Eggman countered. "Now come meet your doom, Sonic!"

Sonic just shook his head and dashed to Eggman, with Maria looking at him a bit shocked.

"…How can he be so fearless in the face of death…?"

* * *

 _ **MARIA  
**_ _BETWEEN ANGELS & DEVILS_

 _ **Episode 3:**_ _Witness the Angel's Awakening_

* * *

(Play: **Won't Stop, Just Go! – Senoue Jun; From Sonic Adventure 2** )

Sonic dashes towards Eggman's Dragoon as he slides under the swipe of the tail as he then grabs onto it and starts quickly climbing upwards the Dragoon, already doing some stomps on its body with the Homing Attack to damage it for a bit.

 _(A/N: Because just hitting the cockpit to break it is gonna get lame)_

He climbed upwards while still slamming himself as a ball on the body. Then, he tried to do a Drop Dash in order to break through the body to completely annihilate the robot through the cockpit. However, Sonic was suddenly shocked by the body parts near the cockpit before he could have a chance to do so as he fell down to the floor. He was still fine and got up very quickly, but he still felt the shock around him for a bit.

"What is this, a new trick?" Sonic said, in which Eggman started laughing.

"This is my new prevention for you fucking annoying Homing Attacks! An **Electric Shield!** Good luck hitting this!" Eggman talked back, firing a drill missile at Sonic, which he jumped up to miss, but was now heading to Maria, which managed to dash backwards to avoid it.

"Sonic! Maria!" Maria heard voices behind her as she turned around. It was Tails and Honey, having run towards the hill because of the Earthquakes that happened earlier. They stopped near Maria as they also watched Sonic fight against Eggman as he usually does; Tails had a backpack on him.

"The Egg Dragoon? Again?" Tails started, before then noticing the electric shield on the cockpit. "Uh-Oh! Eggman's got some serious upgrades now!"

"I-I'm scared to think…" Maria started saying, stuttering a little, but Honey tapped her back.

"Don't worry, Maria! Sonic is way too fast to die easily~nyan!" Honey reassured her, trying to make Maria calm down.

"Still, that electric shield is gonna be a problem…" Tails commented as he watched the fight.

Sonic was doing lots of Homing Attacks and Stomps on the Dragoon's body, and while it was working, the damage was only slight, as the body was still pretty strong for an old machine.

Meanwhile, Tails noticed the Emerald in her pocket, and how it was lacking in its shine, Tails picked it up and looked at it for a moment, then finally deducing the cause of the lack of shrine. "…Maria." He called her, which made her turn and look at it. "This Fake Emerald's getting out of energy now."

"Huh? Why?"

"Some of these artificial emeralds have a limited amount of Chaos Energy to use for a limited time, and yours is already running out." Tails explained to her.

"Oh man… I can't use it anymore…" Maria said as the Fake Emerald then faded to a black color, no shine.

"However, I'm glad I picked something up." He said before reaching for his backpack, however, the group had to dash away to avoid getting smashed by another drill rocket from Eggman's Dragoon, to which Sonic did a Homing Attack on it to damage.

Once they were okay, Tails put his backpack down on the ground and put his hand inside it, then pulling out, this time, a **Real Chaos Emerald** from it, and Maria could now feel the Energy of this one Emerald was more genuine than the Fake Emerald she held before. The Emerald in question was the Cyan Emerald.

"I was using this Emerald to power up the Tornado 6, but I think I can give it to you!" He said.

"What? B-But won't you need it for your plane?" Maria told back.

"It's fine, I can always find another one after all." Tails assured her. Hesitantly, Maria picked up the Emerald and looked at it from close up for a moment. Then, the three turned to the fight where Sonic was still having a hard time damaging the Egg Dragoon, but they saw that as he prepared to do a Homing Attack…

"SONIC!"

"Wha-GAH!"

Sonic was just hit by the tail of the Dragoon and sent down into the ground, badly hurt. Eggman started laughing.

"Give up now, Sonic! My Egg Dragoon is better than before!" He aimed the Drill Missile at him and-

" **STOP IT!"** Maria shouted, dragging Eggman's attention to her, in which she dashed towards the front of the giant robot. "THIS ISN'T RIGHT, COUSIN!"

"Maria, my dear, you must understand." He tried to reason with her. "This hedgehog has been thwarting my plans for the past decade! I am now TIRED of him, and I WILL eliminate him!" He was preparing to fire, but Maria just started running to the robot, preparing to punch it.

"Maria… No…!" Sonic tried to call her, but then, the Chaos Emerald with her started to shine brightly as she then jumped to the Dragoon, preparing to punch as the Chaos Energy from the Emerald then enveloped her arm and fist into an aura.

…And to top it all off, coming up from down the hill was **Shadow the Hedgehog** and the entire Team Dark, at the right time to witness the moment of an awakening.

" **GET AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!"**

Maria punched the robot in a **Chaos Smash** , the added strength of the Emerald making the punch 10x stronger as it then made a huge dent on the robot and managed to push it back quite the distance.

Maria widened her eyes from the amount of strength she suddenly acquired from the Emerald, and, as she landed, she looked at it for a bit, seeing its bright shine.

"Sonic!" She heard voices from behind her as she turned around, seeing the black hedgehog and his crew all together. The instant her eyes landed on Shadow, and also his own eyes back at her, time seemed to slow down for a moment, as if a Chaos Control happened. Maria's vision was then taken back to many, many years back, as if the Chaos Control was making her have a trip through time, and the Chaos Emerald was also probably having a part in this. _"Wh-What's going on…?!"_ she thought.

* * *

Once Maria opened her eyes again, she was back at the ARK, only it didn't seem as old as before as she looked around. There were many scientists walking about, and they also didn't seem to notice her. It's as if she was invisible.

(Play: **The Doom; From Shadow the Hedgehog** )

"…Eh?" Once she fully awoke, she started running around the ARK to find any kind of place of interest.

Running around the ARK was starting to reveal many things. This place was once very peaceful and it had friendly people in here that were friends with the scientist Gerald Robotnik, and all of their researches were for one sole purpose: The betterment of mankind.

"… _But… where am I…?"_ She asked that question on her head because she was looking for her past self. Then, she entered a room as she checked out inside of it. Apparently, she entered the room where Shadow the Hedgehog would be located in. However, she'd have to begin running again, as the room she's entered proved to be larger than thought.

" _This place… is huge…"_ Maria thought. _"I… I think I remember… getting lost around here sometimes…"_

After using her supersonic speed to run through some areas and also some loops, she came across another door, leading to a room probably in the center of the ARK.

Then, there she was, in the same room where the black hedgehog, Shadow, was being held inside a capsule. And then she saw herself, in her own human form, putting a hand on the capsule glass as she looked at Shadow.

"…You're the one that's going to cure me…" Her human self said. "…But I wish I could also help other people as well…"

At that moment, a part of her memory was recollected: She had a caring and selfless soul, always wishing to help rather than be helped. She approached the two, knowing she was also probably invisible to them and saw Shadow inside his Capsule.

He was still young back then, having been recently created, but she could see Shadow cared for her as well, reflected by his hand pressing against the glass in the same position her own hand was.

Out of her own volition, Maria, the hedgehog, would reach out and also touch her hand along with her past self's and Shadow's. There, her vision went white, and she swore she could hear her past-self tell her something…

"…Can you please be strong for me?"

* * *

Suddenly, she was warped back into the real world as she suddenly looked around after time came back to normal. Sonic was still grounded, Tails and Honey were checking up on him, Eggman was still trying to recover from the punch and Team Dark arrived to check on the situation. Shadow had seen the Hedgehog Maria as they climbed up and had quickly dashed to her, both Maria and Shadow standing in front of each other now.

* * *

Going back in time, Shadow was already climbing up the hill when the rest of his Team arrived: Rouge, a bat Secret Agent of GUN, and Omega, a rebellious robot from Eggman.

"So, what are we looking for here?" Rouge asked Shadow.

"Firstly, there's the Chaos Energy reading I'm tracking down. Secondly, the doctor has appeared again, causing trouble, probably for Sonic and his pals again."

"[PRIMARY OBJECTVE: ELIMINATE EGGMAN]" Omega blurted out with his robotic voice.

"Omega, right now, my priority is finding out about this Chaos Energy." Shadow rebutted. "…And know why it feels so familiar…"

Rouge raised an eyebrow at that. "Now that's something I want to hear. Why do you think it feels familiar to you?"

"…I'm… not really sure…" Shadow answered. "This energy is not mine, obviously, but it feels so familiar to the point it's as if it belongs to someone important. I don't know if Sonic is using the Chaos Energy, but even then, I'll have to rule that out as well, because Sonic almost never used Chaos Energy unless it is to get his Super State." He explained. "And I don't think he needs it right now."

"Then… who else can use Chaos Energy like you?" Rouge asked back to him.

"…That's what I'm trying to find out."

* * *

Oh, how life can be so ironic once he said that…

However, there was no time for a reunion, as Eggman had now recovered from the hit and was dashing at full speed towards the group.

"GRRRRRR! **YOU'RE GOING TO FUCKING PAY!** "

And he was MAD.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted, sending his trademark Chaos Energy Spear towards Eggman's cockpit, damaging him. "HRG! SHADOW! DO NOT GET IN MY-"

" **CHAOS CONTROL!"** Maria shouted, suddenly stopping time again as she dashed to behind the Dragoon and switched off the Chaos Control, grabbing the tail of the Dragoon and spinning it around before throwing it off towards the horizon. "I won't let you hurt anyone anymore, Eggman!" She said before then dashing off after him with her Speed.

"Wait!" Shadow said, calling Maria by her name on instinct as he dashed after her with his Air Shoes. Rouge looked at the two dashing away after Eggman as she wondered who that Yellow Female Hedgehog was.

"Well, hehe… If Shadow's following her, then she's probably gonna be alright." Sonic commented while Tails was healing him up. Rouge turned to look at Sonic after he said that.

"Whatever you're saying now, bluesy?" She asked him.

"That girl… heh… Let's just say there are some people who just can't stay dead." Sonic answered.

* * *

 _ **BREAK TIME**_

 _It's time to start the "Anime Battle Segment"! A high-speed, high-adrenaline fight with Maria & Shadow against the Egg Dragoon of Eggman! Now, if you guys know, most Anime Fights sometimes have those intervals between the battles where the watchers would comment on how the fight could be going. I'll try to do the best I can to follow something like that without losing focus on the fight that's happening. Now then, ONWARD!_

 _ **STORY TIME**_

* * *

(Play: **Westopolis Remix – Ohtani Tomoya; From Sonic Forces** )

Maria was running through the grass while heading towards Dr. Eggman's Egg Dragoon, which had recovered from the throw and was now flying backwards to fight Maria. Shadow was approaching behind, not only wanting to make the Doctor retreat, but also to know who's this new Hedgehog that appeared that looked just like his old and only friend he had.

"Grrr! You little!" Eggman was still angry. "I'm going to send you back to the purgatory you crawled out of!" He started firing off multiple drill missiles towards Maria, which was boosting to get out of their way, with Shadow chasing her close behind. "HEY! YOU!" Shadow shouted.

Maria looked behind and noticed Shadow after he shouted to her as she slowed down to run beside him and talk with him for a short moment: "Listen, I can't explain everything right now! But can you please help me stop my cousin?!" She said to him.

"Your cousin?! Eggman?!" Shadow was a bit surprised, and wanted to ask more, but before he could have the chance, Maria boosted to the Dragoon, which tried to swipe its tail again, but Maria jumped and caught the tail in time, as she then dashed up and jumped, rearing back a fist as an aura of Chaos Energy engulfs it again.

" **Chaos… SMASH!"** She punches the Dragoon's upper body, sending it rolling around the ground as she landed and boosted after it, Shadow still chasing after her.

" _She's… She's really strong…!"_ Shadow thought. _"…Could this really be the Maria I remember?!"_

* * *

"Maria Robotnik?!" Rouge shouted. "Isn't she dead!?"

Sonic, Tails & Honey were explaing to Rouge and Omega about the Maria the Hedgehog dilemma and how she returned.

"She told us how she suddenly got back thanks to Gerald." Tails said. "And considering she's the living proof, I don't think we should discredit it."

"[Computing…]" Omega said, using his robotic. "[Are you implying Dr. Eggman has familiars that aren't affiliated with him?]"

"I thought that was obvious enough, ya bucket o' bolts." Sonic talked back.

"Still, being a Hedgehog means different abilities." Rouge said. "Does this mean this Maria now is…"

"A lot stronger than the old one." Sonic answered. "I've trained her a bit myself, and while she can't do some skills… I mean, holy shit, she has a **Homing Spindash** , for chaos' sake!"

"Hmm…" Rouge was wondering something before turning to look at the area where Shadow and Maria ran off to.

"…Maybe she's also the one that created those surges of Chaos Energy…?" She wondered.

* * *

Maria and Shadow were still fighting Dr. Eggman's Egg Dragoon, with Maria performing various kick attacks while she jumped and ran, while Shadow provided cover with his Chaos Arrows and even did some Homing Attacks on the Dragoon.

Maria took out the Chaos Emerald for a moment, looking at its shine for a bit. _"…Please… Grant me your power to stop my cousin from going mad… I need your power right now…!"_ She thought, putting the Emerald back in her Pocket just in time to jump over a Drill Missile.

"I see you have a Chaos Emerald in you there!" Eggman shouted, having noticed Maria take out the Emerald for a moment. "Now you hand it over, so that way I don't have to kill you for-"

"Stop!" Maria shouted back. "You're not getting this Emerald, Ivo!" She then boosted to the Dragoon. "And you're not killing me either!"

"Oh-hohohoho!" Eggman just laughed it off. "And what makes you think I can't kill you again like those pesky GUN soldiers!?"

…Maria simply smirked.

(Play: **Have you ever seen… - Ghost Oracle Drive; From God Eater** )

"Because I already died!"

Maria then jumped up in the sky, the Chaos Emerald starting to shine and float in an orbit around her body for a moment, the speed ever increasing while Shadow watched her; Eggman tried to use this chance to fire a Drill Missile at her, but there was an invisible barrier around her that blocked the missile. It was probably formed by the Chaos Emerald as it shone.

"WHAT!?" Eggman shouted in surprise.

" **The servers... are the 7 Chaos…"** Maria started speaking on instinct. **"Chaos… is power… Power enriched by the heart…"** She was chanting the Chaos Spell, although it would end on a different note: **"A power… that is used… to protect this world!"**

After the last chanting, the Chaos Emerald suddenly shattered and started to change its shape and form it around Maria's hands raised up to the sky.

" **Chaos…"** The shape then extended, forming what looked now like a **Chaos Emerald Blade** on her hand. **"…SWORD!"**

Then, once the shine stopped, it revealed a Cyan-colored Emerald Claymore Sword on her hand, which Maria gripped tightly. The sword had the shape of a Broadsword, actually, but it seemed stylished in a way the Crossguards were turned upwards, pointing to the edge of the Sword, which was triangle-shaped.

Eggman literally had to LOWER HIS GLASSES to look at it. "What the heck!? The Chaos Emeralds never behaved like that before!" He shouted.

" **Chaos… WING!"** At these new words, two Chaos Energy Angel-like wings appeared behind Maria as she then flew towards the Egg Dragoon at the same sonic speeds of her boosts as she then swung the sword, cutting off the left arm of the Dragoon.

"NO!" Eggman shouted. Shadow saw that as a chance to wail on the insides of the Dragoon as he boosted to the cut area and did a Homing Attack to breach inside the Dragoon's hull. Maria flew back and cut the other arm of the Dragoon off, also allowing Shadow to blast out of the Dragoon's inside through it.

"AGH! DAMN YOU! **DAAAAAMN YOOOOUUUU!** " Eggman shouted, seeing the hull breach and that the robot started to detonate by itself.

"Shadow!" Maria called him, landing beside him. "Throw me towards the Egg Dragoon, quickly!"

"What?! What are you trying?" Shadow asked her.

"Just do it!"

Shadow dashed to her and grabbed her left arm which she extended for him. At that moment, Shadow had a flash on his mind of the human Maria in front of him before he continued the process and started to spin in place, forming a black & blue mixed blur on their location before then Shadow threw Maria towards the Egg Dragoon for her to finish it off.

"IT'S OVER, IVO!" Maria shouted, rearing back her Chaos Sword as a cyan aura formed around her.

" **CHAOS… DRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILL!"** She shouted, thrusting the sword forward and starting to roll sideways while flying and forming a Drill-like aura trail as she flew at Supersonic speeds to the Egg Dragoon.

" **NONONONONONO! EJECT! EJECT!"** Eggman desperatly shouted, managing to Eject his capsule from the Egg Dragoon as he flew away just in time to see his old creation getting drilled in the chest by Maria before she then burst out of the Dragoon and flew forwards, sliding to a stop quite a distance from the Egg Dragoon, which now had a gaping hole on the chest area.

She swung her sword one last time before the Egg Dragoon then blew up spetacularly behind her, Eggman looking at the explosion in horror as he, and also Shadow, witnessed an Awakening that would linger in their minds for quite some time.

This ultimately proved that Maria, right now, was not the same as she was 55 years ago.

 _(A/N: You see what I did there? If not, you should watch more Anime.)_

* * *

Meanwhile, back with the group, they heard and also had seen the explosion from a distance. Sonic smiled.

"I know those explosions when I see them!" Sonic said. "She did it!"

"Wow! That's a really big explosion… I hope she's okay." Tails wondered.

"Should we go check them out~?" Rouge said, slightly winking at Tails, which deadpanned at her.

"Well, better than never, right? Let's go!" Sonic said, already boosting towards the explosion area.

"Let's go, Tails~nyan!" Honey said, in which Tails went to pick up his backpack and grab her arm before spinning his twin-tails and flying off after Sonic. Rouge and Omega followed shortly after.

The trip didn't take a long time, but they were treated to quite a sight once they arrived. Shadow was standing on the ground, looking up at the sky, watching a floating Maria which still had her Chaos Energy wings and the Chaos Emerald Blade on her hand.

Once Maria noticed Sonic and the others, she smiled and waved back at them, starting to float down to the ground. Once she softly landed, the Chaos Wings faded out and the sword she held in her hand shattered, going to form itself back into the Chaos Emerald she had in her. "Hi again, guys!"

"MARIA!?" Sonic, Tails & Honey. "HOLY SHIT!"

"Well, well~" Rouge exclaimed herself, with Omega only scanning and inspecting her. Shadow approached her and stood just a small distance in front of her, with Maria still holding the Chaos Emerald in her hand as she looked back at him.

Shadow then glared a slight bit towards her, which made Maria rear back a bit. "You can't be her… You're very different from the Maria I knew back then…" He told her.

"…Well… I guess I am…" Maria answered. "I still… don't remember a lot of my own past, but I'm kinda assuming… that the Human Maria was… me, only in the past…"

"I-I do know that my name is Maria Robotnik after all… I guess…"

Shadow wasn't convinced, shaking his head. "That alone proves nothing." Sonic then slaps Shadow's head in the back.

"Come on, Shadow! Give the girl a break, she just defeated Eggman!" He told him.

"Let me investigate this, dammit!" Shadow shouted back to him, once he turned around to see Maria, he saw Rouge was now inspecting her entire body up close, with Maria feeling a bit weirded out by Rouge's actions.

"Umm… W-What are you doing…?" She asked her.

"Oh, don't mind me, darling. Just checking you out~" Rouge answered. Once she was done, she looked to Maria's face for a moment. "Heh. You really do look like that girl from Shadow's memories, only you look like a hedgehog now."

"Rouge, again, there's no way that sh-" Shadow was about to argue with Rouge, but she silenced him with a finger.

"Shhh. Let me talk with the new girl, Shadow!" She said to him, then, turning back to her. "So then, where do you come from, missy?"

"Um… is this a good place to talk about this on?" Maria said, after all, they were still at the Green Hills of the place where Maria and Shadow fought Eggman.

 _(A/N: Yes, you've read that right)_

"Oh, right." Rouge giggled a bit at the random comment.

"I mean… I'd also like to know about this 'angel form' or whatever those wings were, too." Tails said.

"I don't think I changed forms…" Maria said. "I only gained Angel Wings and that's it…"

"There's also the thing you did with the Chaos Emerald, since you kinda… turned it into a sword. And that was cool, too!" Sonic commented.

"Well… For some reason, that kinda felt… natural?" Maria told them. "I mean, it was as if I knew the Emerald could do that for some reason, but then again, I also didn't knew that myself…"

Shadow perked up once he heard that from Maria. "You said you knew it could do that, yet you also weren't sure?" He asked.

"I-I don't know." Maria answered. "It just felt natural, but unfamiliar at the same time."

Now Shadow was curious for a moment as he put a hand on his chin to think. _"What could this mean…?"_ he thought.

"Anyways, I should probably head back to my apartment to rest up after that." Maria said, then turning around and holding a hand on her chest. "Honestly… I've never felt that much adrenaline before…"

"It gets ya pumped, huh?" Sonic commented, nudging Maria a bit with his elbow, which kinda earned him a glare from Shadow, to which he rose his hands to.

" _Wait, what?"_ Shadow suddenly thought. _"Why am I… I don't know this hedgehog girl, why am I being suddenly protective of her!?"_

"Well… I won't deny that." Maria answered. "It was quite fun, actually! Hahaha!" She actually meant that, too. Over the course of the fight, during both phases in which Maria was on the ground and flying using her Chaos Wings, while she showed frustration and anger towards Eggman, she also felt quite the adrenaline rush, which made the fight more enjoyable for her.

Shadow saw that and thought she was crazy. _"She might have those powers, but I can tell she's still inexperienced…"_ He thought _"How is she not afraid of all of this… Unless she is and is just trying to overcome it?"_

Shadow kept wondering that as the group then started to exit the area and head back to Station Square.

"Hey Tails." Sonic called him.

"What is it, Sonic?"

"You still have those grappling hooks from the Resistance days?" Sonic had something on his mind if he was asking that for Tails.

"Why would you need that? You can do Homing Attacks just fine." Tails rebutted.

"It's not for me!" Sonic talked back, pointing at Maria using his thumb; Maria was talking with Honey and Rouge for the moment.

"Oh… She can't do the Homing Attack?" Tails asked in curiosity.

"Yep, and I thought a grappling hook could help her drive it home."

"Hm… Sure, I could get some from my workshop and I could put them behind her… Um, I don't know if those are the same inhibitor rings that Shadow has…" Tails commented, looking at Maria's gloves.

"Heh, I'm sure they are." Sonic reassured himself.

And from then onward, Maria got herself a new set of friends composing of Team Sonic and Team Dark as well, although Shadow was still skeptical.

* * *

 _Phew! Hope I managed to do it good enough for you guys!_

 _Now then, next Episode will be pretty much filler without much combat, but after that, you guys can decide the next event that Maria could take part in._

 _I officially dub this set of 3 first episodes the_ _ **Awakening Arc**_ _. And trust me, you'll see more of those names forwards!_


	5. Settling in

_I'm thinking of giving Tails a Drill Wispon later on._

 _What do you guys think?_

 _Ah, yeah, as an add-up: If this were in the Archie canon, the story would be taking place in the **Current Continuity** ; in other words, **Post-SGW**._

 _IRL note: **NOOOO! FUCKING DAMMIT! SEGA ABRUPTLY FINISHED ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH ARCHIE AND NOW THE ARCHIE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG COMIC (AS WELL AS SONIC UNIVERSE) HAS BEEN FUCKING CANCELLED! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!? SEGA, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!**_

* * *

Coming back from the Green Hills was quite satisfying for Maria. They had to make a small pause on Tails' workshop for him to pick up some things at the place. While he did so, he picked up two sets of metal bracelets and approached Maria with them.

"…What are those?" She asked him.

"Those… are **Grappling Hook Wrists**. They were used a lot during the last war for the Planet we faced against Eggman 5 years ago." Tails explained, going to equip the bracelets on Maria's wrists along with her ring bracelets. "Sonic told me you couldn't do a Homing Attack like him, so I thought these could be a good help for you."

Tails himself had a pair of those as well on his own wrists, although those were customized, having a yellow color to match his fur.

"Hm… I wonder how they work…" Maria said while looking at the new bracelets on her wrists.

"Just throw your arm towards a direction you'd like to send the grappling hook to, and then you can either pull yourself towards it or-" Tails couldn't really finish as Maria threw her arm towards the ceiling and a grappling hook was launched towards the ceiling, and once it grappled into it, Maria was sent flying upwards and comically hit her head on the ceiling before falling down and landing on her rear on the ground, stars starting to circle around her head for a bit. "…Strap it to a place and use it as a swinging rope."

The others, except for Shadow, couldn't help but laugh at Maria's comical fail in using the Hook, with Maria shaking her head for a bit to recollect herself. "M-Maybe I still need more practice with these before I can fully use them…"

"Agreed." Tails said.

* * *

 ** _MARIA  
_** _BETWEEN ANGELS & DEVILS_

 ** _Episode 4:_** _Settling into the World_

* * *

Traveling with the Tornado 6, which had a new Yellow Chaos Emerald as a power source, Tails, Maria, Sonic, Honey, Shadow and Rouge were flying towards Station Square where Maria's apartment would be located; Omega had been sent back to the G.U.N HQ to report the situation.

"So where do you live again, Maria?" Tails asked her.

"It's a hotel building. It's… not that far from here, I think…" Maria answered. "Yeesh… You can see the whole city from here!"

"It's really high up, eh?" Sonic commented, watching the city from afar. "That's why I always like to travel on Tails' Tornado Wing, to have the best scenery to see!"

Maria smiled at Sonic for a bit. Returning her eyes to the windscreen, she spotted her hotel some miles away. "Over there!" She exclaimed, pointing to the direction. "That's my hotel!"

"Alright, let's get to land!" Tails exclaimed back before flying his Tornado 6 towards the hotel and carefully land on the roof. Once he did so, everyone stepped out of the Tornado while Tails switched it off by picking up the Chaos Emerald from the Tornado. _"I've got to study if other people are able to use the Chaos Emeralds the same way Maria does…"_ Tails thought.

* * *

After using the roof elevator, eventually Maria led the group to her Hotel apartment and showed them the living room for a moment. "It's not really that big, but it's at least something." Maria commented.

"Still a pretty nice place for ya!" Sonic talked back to her, going to crash down and sit on the couch. Maria would watch Shadow as he went to calmly sit down on a couch for two, which made Maria smile for a bit as she went to sit with him. However, realizing what she did, she started to blush. _"T-That was immediate. What's up with me…?"_ She thought.

"Hm, I honestly feel you could do better, darling." Rouge commented, in which Maria drooped her ears, dropping a random sweat.

"I don't have that many rings to spend, ok?" She told to Rouge.

"Right, right, time out here, ok?" Tails called out. "Honestly, I've wanted to share some of my inventions and also some things I've used in the past before and show them to Maria. If she's gonna settle in, it's best she know what each of us likes."

"Ah, this will be interesting! What are the things that you like, Tails?" Maria asked him with a smile. Tails, smiling brightly, pulled out many of his inventions and showed them to Maria.

She was pretty impressed with the things he showed her, and while some of his inventions were still failing, the group just laughed it off, having fun with their experiments. Shadow, while he wasn't reacting much, was looking at Maria with distant eyes, trying to find a way on how to know if this was really the Maria Robotnik from his own past. His vision suddenly glitched, however, as in that short span of a second, Shadow saw Maria's human form over the Hedgehog she currently was, which made him shake his head all of a sudden and rub his eyes. Maria noticed that as she turned to look at Shadow.

"Are you okay, Shadow?" She asked him. Shadow was seeing her normally again, as a hedgehog.

"Uhh, yeah… I'm fine." He reassured her, which Maria nodded and returned to pay attention to Tails. Then, she noticed a small Drill-like gadget with a handle on it as she picked it up. "Tails, what's this?" She asked Tails.

"Hm?" He then noticed the gadget. "Oh, that! Those are my favorite to have!" He picked up the gadget from Maria. "This is called a **Wispon**!"

"…Wis…pon…?" Maria tilted her head a bit.

"It's a weapon that is based on the **Wisps** , an alien race that lives on a different planet. However, there are some Wisps that made Mobius their new home and are living here, helping the people using of the powers of their crazy **Hyper Go-On** Energy! The Wispons were created during the Planet War against Eggman as weapons to further enhance the Wisps' capabilities. This one, for example, enhances the Yellow Drill Wisp, and it's also my favorite Wispon to use!" He wielded the Wispon on his hand as he did some thrusting and swinging motions to slightly show off to her, which Maria laughed a bit, enjoying Tails' motions.

"You should see me fighting with this. Eggman always got scared shitless whenever I used this thing! It's pretty overpowered, kind of." Tails commented on it for her.

 _(A/N: This is no joke; the Drill Wispon is **OP** in Sonic Forces! You could do goddamn Speed Runs in SECONDS with that Wispon! I mean, HOLY SHIT!)_

"Hm… They do seem like weapons…" Maria started to comment, suddenly having a memory flash of seeing the pistols and rifles the GUN soldiers had on their hands 55 years ago. "…But at least they're better than the ones I've seen on my past. They look cuter, too!"

She went to hold up the Burst Wispon for a moment. "Ahh, careful with that one. The Burst Wispon is basically a flamethrower, just don't press the trigger, ok?" Tails warned her, to which she nodded, only checking out the shape of the Wispon.

"Personally, I'm not really a fan of using weapons since I already have my abilities." Sonic commented. "But I gotta admit those little things are strong!"

"They've become the standard issue weapons for many Mobian Security Forces around Mobius, while the humans kept themselves with the conventional guns." Tails explained.

"That's one thing I wanna know about: How are you guys able to live together with humans? I'd expect some kind of… biasing from either side of the coin."

"That has existed in the past, yeah." Tails answered. "It was mostly because humans weren't really responsible enough with our Planet's natural resources, and that kinda sparked some anger on some of us, but that was a long time ago. Now days, we have enough technology to make sure no Natural Resources are harmed and that humans can live alongside mobians in a better way."

"I see…"

"Well, there's only one human that doesn't really… want that." Sonic commented.

"Sonic, it's no competition, we all know it's Dr. Eggman." Tails answered to him.

"Here's the thing, though…" Maria asked them. "What made Ivo become so obsessed with the idea of conquering the world so violently?"

"That's the thing: **No one knows**." Sonic answered. "Eggman was firstly a technical researcher for the Kingdom of Acorn and was pretty much a nice guy before."

"No one really suspected anything from him when he then just managed to banish both King Acorn and Naugus to the Special Zone so he could conquer the city of Mobotropolis. It took Sonic's initiative to stop him that a group known as the **Freedom Fighters** was created." Tails continued.

"Ah, those guys are a blast from the past. I wonder what they're currently doing right now." Sonic said, looking up at the ceiling with a distant look on his eyes. "I kinda miss Sally a bit."

"Sally? You mean… Sally Acorn? I mean the girlfriend Tails told me you have." Maria asked him.

"Ah yeah, that's the one!" Sonic said, pointing at Maria as he sat down. "Good times those were, although I don't really know what she's doing right now, at least we keep contact, and we both hope we can meet again someday." Maria could tell Sonic was deeply in love with her, seeing how he had a distant look on his eyes.

"Hm… It can be quite problematic, right?" Maria then asked, to which Sonic looked at her while raising an eyebrow. "Ah, right, I-I mean, it can be a bit problematic to keep a romance like that when there's already someone that's really obsessed with you chasing you around, right?"

"Ah, you are talking about Amy?" Sonic guessed, in which Maria nodded. "Well, she's trouble alright, but that doesn't mean she can't be helpful when it's needed, honestly. She's capable of holding her own, and is ridiculously strong, almost like you! Only at least, you're not obsessed with Shadow here." He points to Shadow with his thumb to further enhance that, in which Shadow glared at him for that.

"I-I would never be that obsessed with him…" Maria said, slightly glancing at Shadow for a moment. "I mean… a-a small interest isn't bad, b-but…"

"Oh, you'd have more trouble, though." Sonic said, in which Maria looked at him. "Because Shadow has quite the fanb-"

"DO NOT!" Shadow shouted, cramping Sonic's mouth with his hands as he glared angrily at him, making Maria suddenly rear back in fear. "TALK ABOUT THOSE." He continued, slowly putting off his hands from Sonic's mouth.

"Yeesh, Shadow, calm down. You scared Maria there." Sonic commented, pointing at Maria for Shadow to see, in which she was still reared back from having been spooked by Shadow. "…Tch." Shadow just reared back and sat back down on the couch. Rouge was pretty much quiet, which was unnatural of her, but she was only 'spying' the group as they talked with Maria.

"…Has he always been like this…?" Maria asked the group.

"Hehe. You should hang around with him more; he's basically the definition of an Edgelord, honestly." Sonic answered her.

"Yeah, Shadow has mostly been like this, we're used to it. But I've never seen him… **this** worked up." Tails commented.

"Maybe Maria's return messed with his psyche~nyan?" Honey asked, to which Shadow wanted to glare at her, but reminded himself she wasn't pretty much that serious about it, so he let it go for now.

"I still don't think this is the same Maria of the ARK." Shadow commented. "For one, how was she able to be turned into a hedgehog if this is indeed her? The last time I remember, Gerald was captured by G.U.N before being executed."

"They gave him some privacy." Maria suddenly said, making Shadow bat an eye at her. "When I was… 'Killed', it was purely an accident by GUN because they were aiming at you, and I just happened to be on the way."

"…How do you know this?" Shadow asked her.

"Grandpa himself told me so through a Pre-Recorded Message once I awakened again." She answered. "It was during that private time that he developed my Hedgehog body and transferred me to that, effectively 'reviving' me. That process would be very long though, and he said that he used another kind of blood rather than this… 'Black Doom' guy…"

"Black Doom!?" Shadow suddenly exclaimed. "…Wait, you said he didn't use his blood…"

"Yeah…" Maria said. "Why? Was this Black Doom guy pretty dangerous?"

"He almost destroyed the Planet once." Sonic commented, making Maria slightly gasp. "But Shadow here managed to save it, as well as keep a promise **you** made to him before you died."

"A… promise…?" Maria wondered, before then her mind got another memory flash, this time, it was during her death, and it showed what promise was that:

 _"Please… Shadow… Promise me… Those people down there… Give them a chance… to be happy…"_

Once the memory flash ended, she shook her head, starting to breathe a bit. "You OK?" Sonic asked a bit worried.

"I… I have these flashes at times… that show me… some moments of my past…" Maria said. "…I think this one showed the memory of… that promise you guys said…"

Shadow blinked a bit, this Hedgehog had a memory flash of that Maria? It was way too good to be true. _"This is too fucking coincidental…"_ he thought.

"Huh. Maybe it got a bit too tense here." Sonic commented. "Ah, I know! How about a little trip through Station Square for a bit?"

"That could be the best to unwind a bit." Tails commented. "Wanna come, Maria?"

"Oh, sure! I-I already took a trip through here, but I've never really seen the entire city." She said.

"Okay, then! Let's do a city hangout~nyan!" Honey said, jumping in the air with excitement.

"Why, count me in~" Rouge commented.

Shadow sighed a bit. "You guys are seriously too laid back…" He commented.

"YOU should loosen up!" Sonic rebutted, making Shadow glare at him. Then, Maria went to take his hand for a bit as Shadow then looked at her.

"I know you quite don't like to hang with this group… but I want to hang out down with you. I… I want to gain your trust."

…It is important to note that Shadow was slightly surprised.

Over the course of his 55 years of living, Shadow was basically forced to trust some of the people around him; some of those were of his own volition, like Rouge and all, but when he had to help GUN at some times early on, Shadow was a bit forced to rely on them for his objectives to be fulfilled. Now, he was pretty much used to that, but never really had anyone ask for his trust before. That is… until now, with the hedgehog Maria.

"…" He looked to the side for a bit. "…I guess I won't really mind."

This made Maria smile, happy she could have Shadow in on this. The others were basically surprised as they looked at the two with dinner plate eyes, with Maria looking at them in a confused manner. "…Uhh, what?" She asked them.

"…You're… the first person… to convince Shadow to hang with us by his own…" Sonic said.

"That's basically… mind-blowing." Tails added up.

"Even I have trouble convincing Shadow… that was a first try…" Rouge also added.

Maria would blush a slight bit, scratching her cheek while looking away. "I-I-I-I just wanted to… b-bond with Shadow a bit w-while hanging w-with you guys…" She said.

It should be noted that Shadow would never underestimate Maria's social abilities after that.

* * *

 ** _BREAK TIME_**

 _Oh man, not long **4 EPISODES IN** and I already have an idea for a Side Story focusing on Tails… Yeesh… My mind has too much imagination sometimes… I'll try to see if I can indeed make that story, but I'll have to stop for a bit before I get a writer's block on my mind…_

 ** _STORY TIME_**

* * *

It was already night, considering the group returned to Maria's hotel during sunset, and safe to say, the nightlife of Station Square surprised Maria.

The many lights that covered the city at day were a lot more prominent at night, and there were many more people out in the city as well. She was holding Shadow's hand as the group walked around, so that she couldn't get lost herself, which was already very amazed by the city's lights.

"It's so beautiful…!" She commented.

"Yah, night life on this city is pretty much a great way to enjoy it!" Sonic told her.

"I remember the last time I had a hangout in this place with Cream once. People thought we were dating and Sonic even teased me." Tails commented.

"Hey! She does have a crush on you, you know?" Sonic said, making Tails puff his cheeks.

"Stop that!" He rebutted.

Meanwhile, Maria was counting a 2 with her fingers. Probably wanting to count how many girls were interested in Tails. _"And he says he has bad luck in relationships…"_ she thought.

The group firstly went inside an Arcade store to show Maria some games that the world had, and she was basically enchanted with them, ranging from shoot 'em ups to fighting games and even some racing games. Shadow himself preferred the shoot 'em ups, in which Maria liked that he showed his preference on something as simple as a video game. Granted, it was because his skills with a gun, but she liked it regardless.

"Hey, Maria! Would you like some Ice-Cream~nyan?!" Honey suddenly asked.

"Ice-Cream?" Maria asked, as if not knowing what Ice-Cream was, which made Honey gasp.

"You don't know what Ice-Cream is!?"

"I passed my whole life inside a Space Station, Honey, of course I wo-WHOA!" Maria couldn't complete her sentence before Honey started to pull her with towards an Ice-Cream stand inside the Arcade, which Shadow raised an eyebrow at.

Honey bought two Ice-Cream cones, one flavored chocolate for her, and another flavored vanilla for Maria

 _(A/N: -ahem- pun intended -ahem-)_

Once Maria got a taste of her vanilla Ice-Cream, her eyes started to shine and her mouth opened in a smile. She had **really loved** the taste of the Ice-Cream, although…

"THIS IS SO DELICIOUS!"

She might have over exaggerated, shouting like that.

Even Honey stepped back a bit, but had a smile on her face as she saw her friend enjoying her very first Ice-Cream in probably a long time. Maria ate the Ice-Cream in a slow pace to have a better feeling of the taste the flavor of vanilla had. Shadow was watching her from afar and slightly cracked a smile on his face. Something Sonic did not take long to notice, as he was approaching Shadow after playing some games with Tails.

"…Shadow?" Sonic called, already smirking, in which Shadow suddenly removed his smile and looked at Sonic a bit surprised. "What do you want, faker?!"

"Did I see you crack a smile?" That question immediately made Shadow drop a sweat. _"Shit. He noticed."_

He immediately looked away. "I have no idea what you're saying."

"Don't try to hide it from me, Shadow the Hedgehog!" Sonic quickly showed up next to him with his crazy speed, starting to nudge Shadow. "I know a smile when I see one!"

"Grrr! Get away! I didn't smile, dammit!" Shadow rebutted, arguing with Sonic a bit.

Meanwhile, Maria was watching the hedgehog pair bickering with each other. "…They're not the best of friends, right?" She asked Honey.

"Ah, Sonic and Shadow do bicker at times, but the two are just a good of a Speed team~nyan!" Honey commented.

"I see…" Maria looked at Shadow again; him and Sonic had stopped bickering and were probably talking about something from their lives.

She then remembered some parts of her memory where she interacted with Shadow as a human, and how Shadow was a really good friend towards her. Just then, the Chaos Emerald that was with her shined again and, as Maria closed her eyes, another **memory trigger** was activated.

 _(A/N: That's how I'm calling these now.)_

* * *

Once Maria opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the ARK from the past, only she was watching one of the moments when Shadow and herself as a human were together, watching the stars and the Planet below them. She would walk over to stay by Shadow's left side as she also watched the world with them.

"…What do you think the world will be like when we visit it, Shadow?" The Human Maria asked the black hedgehog as he looked at her. Hedgehog Maria also looked up at her.

"…I'm not really sure, honestly." Shadow answered. "I've been… recently created after all."

"Hehe… Dummy, that's why I said 'what do you think'. I meant to ask for a guess on how the world would look like from you." Human Maria said, giggling at Shadow's obliviousness, which also made Shadow himself chuckle a bit. Hedgehog Maria smiled at this Shadow, as she saw he was very happy in the past when she was still alive.

"Okay, okay… I think that it might be a bit crowded at first. But then we could find a place with… probably a green grass and a clean sky where we could watch some clouds float by… or, if it's at night, we could watch the stars from where we're sitting."

Hedgehog Maria blushed a bit; she never thought Shadow would be a bit romantic like that. _"Wait, romantic…?"_ she thought. _"W-What am I thinking…?"_

"I sure hope it can be like that, too…" Human Maria said with a smile always on her face. "I'd really like if we can watch those stars together…"

Hedgehog Maria blushed a bit heavier. _"D-Do I really have these kinds of fantasies…? W-What's even up with me…? Shadow is just my friend… right…?"_ She wondered on her head.

Once the two stopped talking, the area around them goes white, with only Maria and her human form being seen.

Hedgehog Maria thought it was some kind of illusion, but she could swear Human Maria turned her body around and looked at the Hedgehog as if she was there. The Hedgehog dropped a sweat, feeling a bit nervous to talk to herself.

"…You're taking care of him right now… right?" Human Maria asked her Hedgehog form. Hedgehog Maria reared back in surprise a bit, and scratched her cheek before answering: "Um… y-yes… Although I think the others are more taking care of me, because… I'm kinda new to their world…"

"…You must also be noticing your own feelings to him, yes?" Now that sentence got Maria more nervous and even made her blush again. "Hehe. Don't be afraid to tell me, but if you're not sure about them yet, you don't have to. Just search within your heart before opening yourself up. That way, I'm sure you'll be fine with him later on."

Hedgehog Maria smiled at the advice as her Human form then pets her head.

"You're me right now at their world… take good care of them, my angel…" Human Maria said that last sentence before the entire area covered itself in white until the two Marias couldn't see each other anymore.

* * *

Maria then opened her eyes again and saw Shadow still talking with Sonic. She blinked for a bit as well as she kept watching, but then, Honey snapped her out of her trance by snapping her fingers.

"You okay, Maria?" She asked her. Maria smiled.

"Y-Yeah… I'm fine." She answered, before looking back to Shadow for a moment. "…I was just wondering about something."

Shadow, probably feeling that someone was watching him, turned his head to look at Maria, with the two sharing eye contact. Maria slightly smiled at him with Shadow slightly blushing once he noticed that.

Remembering the memory trigger she just had, a light-bulb comically appeared on her head as she finished her Ice-Cream. "Honey. Could you please tell the others to wait here for a moment?"

"Hm? What for~nyan?" Honey asked her, a bit curious.

"Let's say that… I just wanna make something come true." Maria answered, scratching her cheek. Then, she started to jog towards Shadow as she stopped in front of him. "Hey, Shadow."

He slightly sighed a bit. "What do you need?" He asked her. The next moment would be unexpected for the black hedgehog as Maria grabbed one of his hands.

"Eh?!"

"Can you please come with me outside the city for a moment~?" She asked him nicely. Shadow slightly nodded as she then suddenly dashed out using her super speed, with Shadow clumsily following behind her with his Air Shoes.

Rouge noticed the two rushing away as she then looked at Honey. "Where are they going?" She asked her, to which Honey shrugged.

* * *

(Play: **Fly in the Freedom – Tabitha Fair; Rouge's theme From Sonic Adventure 2** )

Maria was using her Super Speed to go as far enough from the city as she then reached a grassy field before sliding to a stop and putting Shadow down.

"W-What are you thinking!?" Shadow said, still surprised and with widened eyes. "What did you bring me here for!?"

"…I thought we could watch the night sky together!" Maria exclaimed, confusing Shadow even further. "Come on! Sit down!" Maria told Shadow, going to sit down on the grass herself. Still slightly confused, Shadow went to sit down next to her as he saw her look up to the skies. _"This is so sudden… is there another reason she brought me here…?"_ he thought.

"…Hey, Shadow…" She started speaking, which brought his attention back to her, as he was looking to the ground before turning to her. "…Did you ever have this feeling that… You were the personification of someone… but sometimes you wonder if you're really that person…?"

Shadow didn't know what to say there, he's been wondering if he was always an Android or if he was the actual Ultimate Life-Form himself, but he decided to go with a simple answer: "…I did, once…"

"…I'm having that same dilemma with my memories." Maria confessed. "Am I really Maria Robotnik's personification? …Or maybe I'm a different person altogether that… somehow looks like her…? I know you have your doubts about if I am Maria or not, but at times… whenever I remember some part of my past… I kinda see her talking to me."

Shadow widened his eyes a bit. "…I'll go with that for a moment. What does she tell you in those moments?" He asks her.

"…To take care of you… and the people in this world…" Maria answered. "…I still hear her sometimes, even in my head…"

She turned to look at Shadow, which made him slightly blush. "…Can you help me?" The blush immediately once she asked that. "…Can you help me keep this promise? I… I don't think I can do it by myself…"

Shadow kept quiet for a moment, the wind blowing in their faces ever so smoothly. _"…Maria…"_ He thought, suddenly having a flash in seeing the Human Maria on the Hedgehog's face for a moment. Maria then leaned on him, rubbing her cheeks with him for a bit, making Shadow blush again. "Please, Shadow…" She begged him again, going to put her arms around him in a hug.

Shadow, while still blushing, went to put a hand on her head to pull her closer as he leaned his own head on hers. "…Okay." He answered. "…I'll help you."

Maria smiled. "…Thank you, Shadow…" During that phrase, Shadow could swear he heard both this Maria and the Human Maria say that at the same time.

Still hugging, the two kept themselves looking up to the beautiful night sky, filled with the many stars they could look at. "…The sky is so beautiful…" Maria slightly commented, with Shadow nodding in agreement.

 _"…I can't believe I'm falling for her already…"_ Shadow thought.

Meanwhile, Rouge, which had tipped off the rest of the group, was watching the two together with the rest from a distance. She had a small frown on her muzzle, and was probably feeling jealous of the two, as **she** herself fell in love with Shadow first, even if Knuckles also caught her heart, but she was basically divided.

While the others slightly giggled, Rouge kept herself quiet. _"…Do I really…?"_ She thought.

* * *

 _Small little fluff in the end by the sound of Rouge's own theme, ironically. What's up with me…?_

 _Now then, I'm gonna pause this story here for a moment and check out how are the reviews going on for it, as I want more people reading and reviewing this story of mine!_

 _Like the rest of the writers are asking: Do an R &R! Read & Review, I'm always accepting these!_

* * *

 _Now then, here's the thing:_

 _This time, **you guys are allowed to tell which will be the next arc for Maria the Hedgehog!** So then, which Arc you want Maria and the rest of the Sonic Team to have? Show your ideas in the reviews and tell me which Arc I can write when I come back to this story!_

 _Maria's destiny is yours to choose! Just don't make her or anyone else die, because I wouldn't like that. XD_


	6. ME NEEDS HALP!

_Okay, there seems to be a lack of much reviews on my story... (More like, I don't want to wait too much for them)._

 _But, I at least got some ideas from even the small of you that ACTUALLY read & reviewed my story, for example, there's a Guest asking if I could include **Infinite the Jackal** on this story, and I'm pleased to say, yes, I will in an arc, together with **Gadget the Wolf** , too, I just wanted to know if you guys wanted that Arc **now** to begin with._

 _Actually, you know what? I'm going to list the Arcs/Sagas I had the idea for and you guys choose which arc I will do next._

* * *

 **Arc/Saga List:**

 _ **Phantom Infinity Saga**  
Synopsis: Maria meets Gadget the Wolf, a resistance member that is traveling the world and being his own hero. However, when the REAL Phantom Ruby is discovered by the two (because the Ruby Infinite was using was only a prototype), they're immediately pursued by **Infinite** , who dissapeared ever since the War for the Planet, and with Eggman also hunting them for the Ruby, what will they do? Especially since the Ruby is a lot more powerful than the Chaos Emeralds._

 ** _Emerald Search Arc  
_** _Synopsis: Wanting to know more about the Chaos Emeralds, Maria sets off with the party of Honey, Shadow, Sonic and Tails to try and find the rest of the Chaos Emeralds. Currently, Maria, Tails and Shadow have one each, so they have 3 Chaos Emeralds; Maria wants to find the remaining 4, however, they have to be careful, as Eggman is also looking for them._

 ** _Crimson Redemption Saga  
_** _Synopsis: It was so sudden, but Fiona Fox returned from Moebius after Scourge the Hedgehog went insane with his power as the king of the planet. Re-meeting with Tails, and also meeting Maria, they firstly start in an awkward fashion, but when Scourge comes to Mobius and attempt to expand his tyranny to this dimension, Maria, Sonic, Tails and a reformed Fiona must stop him before he brings this world on the verge of collapse, and even EGGMAN will help them!_

 ** _Sonic Advance Saga  
_** _Synopsis: The Sonic Advance Trilogy retold, only with more characters, and with different storylines as well for each game, so that they don't feel too similar. It starts pretty simple, Eggman has another plan to take over the world and Maria, Sonic and the heroes will go slap him silly, but it seems that Nack the Weasel, A.K.A: Fang the Sniper, has taken the Chaos Emeralds as per Eggman's request, so not only do they have to stop Eggman, but recollect the Chaos Emeralds stolen by Nack... and that's only the first game._

 ** _Archie Revisit Arc  
_** _Synopsis: Maria wants to get to know the city of Mobotropolis, and when Sonic & Tails come along for the ride, she is able to meet the old members of the Freedom Fighters, including Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine D'Coolete and many others. Eggman's gonna try and crash their party, but Maria will see just how experienced they are when it comes to fighting off Eggman._

 ** _Sonic Heroes Saga  
_** _Synopsis: A re-telling of the Sonic Heroes game! Maria, with her newly formed **Team Light** , partners up with Team Dark as they chase Dr. Eggman in his new attempt at creating the **Egg Fleet**. What they don't know, is that that's actually his greatest creation, **Metal Sonic** , which took over his machines and is now trying to take everything into his command! With Team Light and Team Dark investigating the situation, as well as other Teams joining in on the party, will Maria and her Team be able to defeat the upgraded **Neo Metal Sonic** and save the world from him?_

* * *

 _After probably one or more Arcs/Sagas completed, if you want, I will finish the First Season off this story with this saga right here:_

 ** _Maria the Hedgehog Saga  
_** _Synopsis: Seeing as how her own Cousin is very obsessed with this world domination objective, Maria goes to get answers from Dr. Eggman himself, risking getting captured by his forces. When finally talking with him, Maria will finally get her own answers about herself and her past family, and will make a decision: Is she really going to keep being **Maria Robotnik** , or is she going to be a **different person** from then onward?_

* * *

 _Again, if you have ideas for other Sagas or Arcs I could put in, don't hesitate to put them in the reviews! Also, **I STILL NEED A THIRD MEMBER FOR MARIA'S TEAM LIGHT.**_

 _Currently, Team Light is organized like this:  
Maria [Speed]  
? [Flight]  
Honey [Power] (I'll explain why afterwards)_

 _One review already said it should be an Official Character, but I NEED MORE OPINIONS! Do you guys still want me to have an Official Character? Or do you think an Original/Fan Character would do better?_

 _And in the case of an Official Character, **which one?** Since there are many Official Characters from both the games or the Archie comics!_

 _Now then, that's all. Remember to post your opinions in the reviews!_


End file.
